Dr. Miguel Moital's Blog

New book chapter "Golf Tourists’ Satisfaction: Hard-Core Versus Recreational Golf Tourists"

2012-02-01T17:40:00.005Z

published in

“International sports events: impacts, experiences and identities”

edited by Dr. Richard Shipway and Professor Alan Fyall (Bournemouth University)

Today this awaited book has been published. It features an article that I have co-authored with Nuno Ricardo Dias, from the Estoril Higher Institute of Hotel and Tourism Studies. The chapter was written as part of receiving an ESRC (England Social Research Council) grant under the STORMING programme to attend CAUTHE 2010 in Hobart, Australia.

About the chapter:
Some types of tourism are centered on practicing favourite leisure activities in a different setting. One such example is golf tourism, which has established itself as a significant tourism activity in many countries, including Portugal. In order to improve the performance of the sector, golfing destinations should aim at not only increasing re-visitation rates through greater levels of loyalty, but also to generate new demand, for which word-of-mouth plays a critical role. For these two outcomes to happen, current tourists need to be highly satisfied with their experience. This chapter aims to examine the determinants of golf tourist satisfaction, with a focus on tourists visiting Lisbon. The chapter compares two types of golf tourists: the hard-core golf tourists (those who travel to Lisbon to play golf) and the recreational golf tourists (those who play golf but for whom practicing this sport is not the main reason to travel to Lisbon).

Data from the Lisbon Tourism Board’s 2010 survey profiling golf tourists in Lisbon (Portugal) was obtained and used for the purposes of the empirical study. A total of 520 questionnaires were used in the analysis, 199 from “hard-core” and 321 from “recreational” golf tourists. Pearson correlation was undertaken to identify whether there was a relationship between overall satisfaction and each of the 10 attributes of Lisbon as a golfing destination. The chi-square test was applied when the dependent variable was nominal (gender and reservation of golf course in advance), while the Mann-Whitney was used for ordinal dependent variables (age, number of nights spent in Lisbon and number of golf courses to be played at).

The main results were:

Golf tourists in Lisbon were middle aged, predominantly male, travelled on a long holiday (over three nights), played in a reduced number of golf courses and booked golf course(s) before arriving at the destination, suggesting that playing golf in Lisbon was a planned rather than a spontaneous activity.
When compared to hard-core golf tourists, recreational golf tourists are older and a greater proportion are females. In addition, recreationists stay longer but play in fewer golf courses, and are less likely to book the golf course in advance of the trip.
Tourists evaluated their golfing experience in Lisbon positively. They appeared particularly pleased with the accommodation and the easy access to golf courses.
According to the correlation coefficients, the value elements appear to play the most important role in influencing overall satisfaction (satisfaction with the price of accommodation, green fees and the cost of playing golf).
For the hard-core golf tourists, quality aspects in the form of service quality of golf courses, ease of booking and quality of accommodation appear to be a more important influence on satisfaction, while recreational golf tourists appear to consider value as a most important influence (notably price of accommodation and cost of playing golf)

The full contents are summarised below:

1. International sports events: toward a future research agenda
Richard Shipway and Alan Fyall

SECTION 1 - Impacts and legacies of international sports events
2. Evaluating economic impacts of international sports events
ShiNa Li and Leo Jago
3. Exploring the political and international relations dimensions of hosting sports mega events through the lens of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa
Suzanne Dowse
4. Mega sports events and the potential to create a legacy of increased sport participation in the host country: a London 2012 Olympic promise or Olympic dream?
Kate Hughes
5. ‘No manual available’: the creation of a youth Olympic legacy - a case of Singapore 2010
Youth Olympic Donna Wong
6. The cultural legacy of the 2012 Games

Nancy Stevenson
7. Sports events: do we need to set limits?
Deborah Sadd

SECTION 2 - Consumer behaviour and the participant experience at sports events
8. Understanding the ‘event experience’ of active sports tourists: long distance endurance triathletes

Amanda Miller
9. Sailing events and the participant experience

Holly Henderson
10. Golf tourists’ satisfaction : hard-core versus recreational golf tourists
Miguel Moital and Nuno Ricardo Diaz
11. The Olympic experience from a distance: The case of the equestrian events at the 2008 Games

Katherine Dashper
12. Adventure tourism as a series of memorable events: women travellers walking experiences in New Zealand
Linda Myers and Kevin Hannam

SECTION 3 - Sports events and identities
13. Olympic tourists: seeking a sense of belonging and the construction of social identities
Naomi Kirkup
14. Encouraging active identities and lifestyles: the spatialities of youth mountain biking
Katherine King
15. Stadia, identity and belonging: stirring the sleeping giants of sports tourism
Richard Wright
16. Distance running events and the ‘third place’ Richard Shipway

Endnote - Professor Leo Jago

A ‘VIRTUAL’ [non-existing] CONFERENCE – (RAY) HOLDEN PUBLISHING AND RESEARCH

2012-01-23T19:01:00.004Z

It has recently came to my knowledge the story of a colleague from a UK university who registered for a conference organised by RayHolden Publishings / the International Journal of Neighbourhood Renewal. However, the conference never took place. That colleague registered for the conference, paid the £180 + VAT fee, travelled to London on the day only to arrive at the venue and find out that there was no conference. In a conversation with the venue conference manager, the colleague was told that the conference had not been confirmed due to non payment. Needless to say, the colleague tried to contact the organisers to get the money back and did not succeed. This conference was advertised as organised by ‘Holden publishings’- This was the conference announcement:

---------------
Future Cities 2011 – International Symposium London
15th and 16th
December, Westminster London UK
Call for Papers and Delegate Registration
IJNR, The International Journal of Neighbourhood Renewal is pleased to announce the staging of Future Cities, a New Annual Conference Series dedicated to the sustainable development of our Cities and Urban areas. The first event is being staged in the heart of the global city of London at Westminster and overall details of the event can be found at http://www.rantrad.co.uk/rantradfuture‐ cities Over the 2 day event over 700 delegates from across the globe will listen to a range of presenters and discuss key issues and topics. There are eight streams to the event and Papers are welcome in the following policy themes:
CULTURE
The Cultural City
Urban Theory
The City of Neighbourhoods
The Health City
The Connected City
Deprivation and the City
The Sporting City

GLOBAL
The Global City
The City of Enterprise
The City and the Region

To submit a paper please email here an abstract and a short summary of the Paper etc. The deadline for submissions is 1st October 2011. To register as a delegate please email your requirements here. Delegate and Speaker Registration Fees for 2011 are £180 plus VAT with a special rate of £90 for students. There are also 50 display stands at the conference to market and promote to work that you do and these are priced at £490 plus VAT. If you wish to book one please email you requirements here. If you would also like to sponsor any aspect of the Symposium please just get in touch and we will make the necessary arrangements.
We look forward to seeing you in London in December. Follow us on Facebook – look for our page RANTRAD.

The Future Cities Conference Team
Holden Publishing, 20 Garrick Street,

LONDON WC2E 9BT

United Kingdom
-------------

Surprise, surprise, the website http://www.rantrad.co.uk/ where the conference site was hosted, is no longer available. Recently, they advertised their 2012 conference. Earlier in January I started receiving emails like this probably one every week). This was the latest one I received, just two days ago (Wednesday, 18th January):

----------
Future Cities Conference
18 and 19 June 2012
Oxford
Failing Cities Conference
20 and 21 June 2012
Oxford
In June 2012 we will be holding two important conferences concerning urban planning, urban geography and neighbourhood renewal entitled Future Cities and Failing Cities. Both will take place at Oxford. Both events are 2 day events and the cost to attend each event is GB 250 plus VAT per person for delegates and speakers. To have a display space at the event the cost is GB 600 plus VAT for both events in total. All papers presented at both events will be available after the event in a Conference booklet for all delegates and speakers. Student researchers receive a discount of 50%. All attendees at the event will receive conference papers, refreshments during the event and invited to the Conference Drinks Receptions.
To register for the event, as a delegate, speaker to submit a paper, for delegate inserts or a display space please email here. Details of the event can be found here http://rayholden.moonfruit.com/#/home/4558201354

Themes for the conferences include:

Future Cities
The Connected City
The City and the Region
The City of Neighbourhoods
The City of Enterprise
The Healthy City
The Sporting City
The Sustainable City
Urban Theory
The Cultural City
The Global City

Failing Cities
The Right to the City
Unsustainable Cities
Urban Theory and the Production of Space
Shrinking Cities
New economies for smaller cities
How to plan for smaller cities
With kind regards and we look forward to seeing you in May 2012.
Confirmed organisations currently include:
BMW Group / Newcastle City Council / University College London / University of Bournemouth / Taylor and France Group / Routledge / Oxford University Press / Association of Town Centre Management

Holden Publishing and Research
--------------

As you can see, it is similar to the December event and organised by the same people. Today, the website for the 2012 conference is no longer available (it was available two days ago). The web address for the International Journal of Neighbourhood Renewal, which Ray Holden Published, is also no longer available too.

When looking at their promotion, there are some alarm signs... One is the intention of the organiser to create the image that the event is a reliable initiative. For example, mentioning the entities already 'confirmed'. These entities are very disparate. The other is the reference to the University of Bournemouth as a ‘supporter’ – but we are Bournemouth University, not University of Bournemouth. And also the reference to Taylor and France Group (actual name is Taylor & Francis).

I googled this organisation, and found this information about one of their events – basically very poor and encouraging others not to attend them .

I am simply reporting the facts and my interpretation of this situation. I don’t want to take conclusions on your behalf - I will let you draw your own about the International Journal of Neighbourhood Renewal, Holden Publishing and their events.

I'm back!

2012-01-23T18:58:00.002Z

Hi everyone,
I have been away from this blog for more than a year now... there are many reasons for this to have happened, but I am now in a position to re-start blogging. I hope to blog more frequently than before. Watch this space!
Happy new year (well it is still January...)
Miguel

Summer 2010 I - Holland and Italy

2010-11-01T01:09:00.015Z

The Summer is now (long) gone and with it the resting, the good weather and the travelling. You will not be surprised to hear that I did a bit of travelling over the summer… I was meant to have posted these entries much earlier, but too many things have been happening in my life which have prevented me from doing so. Better late than never, so here are three posts about my summer! I - Holland and Italy; II - Portugal; III: Brazil. Enjoy!

Summer travelling kicked off with a trip to Holland to visit my Dutch friends. I studied in Holland in 1995 as an Erasmus student and made three good friends: Saskia, Kristel and Yvonne. Since then we remained in touch and for some time we tried to meet every year, either in Portugal or in Holland. However, we had not met since 2002. Since Saskia had just had a baby girl, this was a good opportunity to visit them again. It is amazing that so many years later we are the same (ok, we are bit older…). It was good to catch up, know what they have been up to and remember the good moments we spent together in the past. We met on the day of the world cup final. Unfortunately Holland lost...

From left to right: Saskia, Yvonne holding Teuntje and Kristel

Teuntje; how cute does she look here?

Watching the world cup final. My friends has a surprise for me. A pair of typical Dutch shoes!

Even the cake was Orange!

Visiting Leiden - the traditional Dutch windmill in the back

now... which one is my bike? bike parking area with literally thousands of bikes

During my trip to Holland I still had time to visit my class mates and friends Pedro and Patricia in The Hague. Pedro works for the Portuguese Tourism Board and has been working as the Representative for the BENELUX markets for two years. It was great to see them again, specially their little boy Pedro Junior.

In front of the Royal Palace in Den Hague

With Patricia and Pedro Jr (Pedro Senior was taking the picture)

Reception of the Dutch Football Team by the Queen. The crown waiting for the players to come to the Balcony. I had to leave to the airport and ended up not watching the players.

In Holland... be a Dutch!

ITALY

At the end July I went on a week-long Salsa Holiday in Italy. I had tried to dance Salsa for a while, but always struggled a bit. This year I tried again and it ‘clicked’ – I finally managed to dance. Since May I have been trying to practice a lot and learn a few more moves. Going on a salsa holiday would tick two boxes – learning salsa and relaxing and having bit of fun. I searched options on the Internet and found the ‘Salsa in Toscana’ Holiday, organized by Leuven Salsa, from Belgium. The holiday took place in Prata and Bocheggiano, two very small – but beautiful – towns near Massa Maritima/Follonica (around 2 hours south of Pisa). Both villages are at the top of hills and the views are amazing. This was my first time in Italy. Toscana is quite beautiful and I will certainly be back soon.

I had not realized that there were two quite different styles of salsa – LA salsa and Cuban salsa. I do Cuban salsa, but in Italy it was LA salsa. At the beginning it was difficult as the choreographies are different and some of the ‘rules of the game’ too. For example, in Cuban salsa you are much more free to use the space in dance floor, in LA salsa you have to keep a line with your partner. At the beginning most of the mistakes I did were because of not meeting this rule. During the holiday we had salsa parties virtually every night, most of them at open air venues. Needless to say, I met a lot of people (we were around 30 salseros) and some of them became good friends. Besides people from Belgium, there were people from France, Slovenia and even one American!

Amazingly delicious tiramusu that I ate in Massa Maritima

Dancing with Agata. I was probably thinking... bugger, I do I get out of this move?

After an energetic walk through Maremma National Park, a deserved swim on the Mediterranean sea.

Maremma National Park

Amazing Raibow at a Tuscan Hotel where we had some classes and dinner

Learning some new moves. Dancing with Sylvie.

Last day dinner in Bocheggiano

Avec les Francaises... Karen and Sylvie

The buys doing silly things (the woman's hand posture...)

The chefs dream team: me and Carolyn. We cooked for 25!

The entire group at Maremma Park beach

Summer 2010 II - Portugal

2010-10-31T23:57:00.009Z

For the second stage of my holidays I went 10 days to Portugal to be with my family and friends. The days in Portugal were wonderful. My family’s Summer house is in front of the sea in a town called Praia do Pedrogao, not far from where my parents live (around 11km). The house is small but gorgeous. It has been in the family for four generations – it belonged to my great grand uncle, then my grand uncle, then it was inherited by my grandparents and now is owned by my mother and her brothers/sisters. The house is the ‘meeting point’ for the whole family (uncles, aunties, cousins) so it is always quite busy during the day.

Beautiful sunset I

Beautiful sunset II

My mum's rice pudding - the best one in the world (guaranteed!)

This year I was lucky that the sea was good so the fishing boats went out to sea virtually everyday. That means fresh fish! One day I went to buy it from the fishermen at 11am, and by 1pm it was in our plate! It can’t be fresher than that!

The boat is about to be launched on to the sea

On the water...

Arriving...

The net is pulled

The two sides of the net are closed when the 'bag' is about to arrive - excitement grows

The net's bag has arrived!

Fish market on the beach - all the fish has to be sold on the beach staright after being caught

'Jaquinzinhos' / Carapau (Small horse-mackerel)

My mum cooking the 'Jaquinzinhos'

Look how small they are!

Me eating the 'jaquinzinho'. You eat them in one go (only the tail is not eaten). They are best eaten fried with tomato rice and lettuce salad.

During my stay there was also the annual the local fete. The house faces the main square, where the entertainment takes place. In fact, the stage is right next to the house! While we have a privileged view, we also have to endure with loud music from 10am to 2am… not the best thing when you want to have some rest! This year there were four days of entertainment, with live music in the evening. During the weekend there is also day entertainment and the celebrations finish with fireworks on the Beach. I did not see this year’s fireworks, but a couple years ago I did and it is very beautiful. And because they are just in front of the house, we have a prime view of it.

View from the balcony: the crowd dancing

View from the balcony: singer 'Flor' and her Dancers Ines Gomes (Blond) and Eden Ricco (Brunette).

Summer 2010 III - Brazil

2010-10-31T19:18:00.020Z

In September I travelled to Brazil to attend two conferences in Sao Paulo. The first one was the VII Annual Conference of the Brazilian Association of Tourism Researchers held at Anhembi Morumbi University. I participated in a round table about the Internationalisation of Brazilian Tourism Researchers and Higher Education Institutions. The 90 minute session, chaired by Professor Jose Gandara from Parana Federal University, featured four other academics from foreign institutions: Dr. Julio Mendes (Algarve University, Portugal), Dr. Jose Fraiz (Vigo University, Spain), Dr. Mario Passos Ascensao (Hagga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland) and Guilherme Lhoman (Southern Cross University, Australia). Around 100 academics and post-graduate students attended the session.

Sorry, no pictures of ANPTUR yet...

In the second part of the week, I attended AMFORHT’s Annual Forum (World Association of Tourism and Hospitality Education), organised by SENAC (a public body responsible for tourism and hospitality education). The Forum involved a series of keynote speeches, parallel academic presentations and workshops/case studies. The theme of the Forum was ‘tourism experience’. I presented a case study on the Salvador Carnival. Twenty eight delegates attended the lively presentation. Although all were familiar with the event/experience, I think they appreciated the view that I brought about the experience of the event.

Getting ready to do my presentation

First day of the conference

The company 'Melhor da Vida', which focuses on experiential marketing, organised an entertainment activity for the Forum guests. It involved bringing in a Samba band who performed for us. They also brought large quantities of two instruments (one of them is in the picture - Tamborim). After a crsh course and a bit of training, we had to play the instruments. Very interesting indeed! Picture by Dani Fernandes!

Before going to Sao Paulo, I took a week off to rest and visit some friends in Brazil. After a day in Rio, I travelled to Salvador da Bahia, where I spent 5 days. From there, I went to Sao Jose do Rio Preto in Sao Paulo state to attend CarnaRioPreto, one of the many ‘Micaretas’ (or off-season carnivals) that take place in Brazil. Two of my favourite bands were playing there: Chiclete com Banana and Batom na Cueca. In fact, I had the privilege of enjoying Batom na Cueca’s show from the top of the truck as I know Darlan, the percussionist of the Band. It is quite a different perspective from there, as you have a bird’s eye view of the crowd.

First day. In Niteroi with Alessandra and her friend, Paula and Rodrigo

In Salvador, with some of my good friends: Me, Tati, Cynthia, Pati, Tom, Pati's Father and partner, Davina and her 'paquera'

With some of the fellow 'micareteiros' during Saturday's barbeque in CarnaRioPreto

'Em cima do Trio' (on the top of the truck) with my friend Darlan in the back totally focused on his job!

Me and Renata, my guest on the top of the truck. Renata is a 'professional' Micareteira, but this was her first time enjoying it from the top of the truck (for me it was the second)

Bird's eye view of the Micareta - a different experience from the one on the ground

Another view from the top - this one over the VIP box (yes, no special effects, it was dawn!)

With Diego, Renato and Tais. These guys are simply amazing: they laugh and make everyone laugh from beginning till the end.

Me with Bell Marques performing - Chiiiii-cleeeee-teeeeee

Bell Marques and Chiclete com Banana

Bell Marques from chiclete com Banana very close to the fans

After the week in Sao Paulo, I returned to Rio de Janeiro. First, I met my friends Carol e Mariana in Leblon (a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro city). We met at a ‘boteco’ in the afternoon (Boteco is relaxed bar which also serves food). After a pizza for dinner, we went out to Barra da Tijuca (an affluent neighbourhood in the south of the city) to a nighclube (can’t remember the name…). It was great to see them. We always have a great time.

With Mariana and Carol during the 'esquenta' (i.e. warm up drink before you go out)

The 'trio' at the nighclube

Not sure what this face is about... intriguing... I think they call it the 'absolut' face :-)

The next day I went to Niteroi (neighbour borough of Rio de Janeiro - on the other side of Guanabara Bay), where I attended the Bridal show of Paula, my Brazilian ‘sister’. Around 70 people attended the party, which not surprisingly involved a lot of food and drink. Guests had to bring a little present for the kitchen. Then, before opening the wrapped present the bride and the groom need to figure out what it is. If they fail to guess what it is, they there is a ‘punishment’ (e.g. to say what they think of their mother in law LOL).

Paula doing something after not guessing what the present was (I think she was singing! ouch...)

Paula and Rodrigo dancing Funk after not guessing what the present was. Thank God they decided to be dentists and not Funk dancers!

All the single girls pulling the string to see who would get the one with the ring attached. The symbolism is similar to the grabbing the flower bouquet - the one who gets it is the next to get married. at the end there was one very happy face and several jealous ones!!

Me, rodrigo-the-groom (in green) and some of the guests attending the Bridal Shower

Me and Paula

Cherries for charity - 2nd edition

2010-05-31T01:20:00.006+01:00

I have just returned from a long weekend in Portugal. Similar to last year, I went to my uncle’s cherry farm to pick (and eat) some cherries. This year I could not stay for long since I had other things to do a many friends and family that I wanted to visit. I still managed to stay there for 24 hours and pick around 70kg of cherries (yes I am a fairly good picker). Like last year, I brought with me a suitcase full of cherries, which I have sold to colleagues and friends for charity. The money raised – £80 – has been donated to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, which also benefited last year receiving half of the money raised in 2009. This year my uncle suggested this charity to be the beneficiary because the grandson of one of his good friends was diagnosed with leukaemia. On behalf of the charity, thank you to all who have bought the cherries, as well my uncle Manuel Antunes Rodrigues (aka Necas) who kindly donated them.

Picking cherries

My uncle Necas looking at the cherries he was taking to the market

The boot of the car full of cherries - Some of these were to be 'exported' to the UK - all for a good cause!

F1 in Monaco

2010-05-30T23:32:00.029+01:00

This year I travelled to Monaco with six friends to watch the Grand Prix. This was not the first time I watched Formula 1 live. Many years ago the Estoril track hosted the Formula 1 (1994 to 96). At that time I was still a student and I had the chance to work for one of the F1 contractors for three years in a row. Many years after I was keen to watch it live again as it is a different experience from watching it on TV.

The famous 5 at Gatwick Airport

We booked this trip well in advance (I think November) to ensure that we could get cheap flights and hotel, as well as good places to watch the race. We arrived in Nice on Saturday afternoon. Nice, which is where most people who come to watch the GP stay, is 20min away from Monaco by train. Kevin booked the accommodation before me and when I went to book the same hotel, it was not available anymore. I then booked another one just a stones’ throw from their place. When we arrived at the hotel, I went to mine and Mike, Kevin, Dave and Nathan went to theirs (Richard and Daniela were stuck in the middle of nowhere after Richard booked a hotel 32km away from Nice!!!).

A few minutes later they call me to say that their hotel… had closed!!! They did not let this affect their spirits and off they went to… the nearest café for a beer while trying to sort out alternative accommodation. As you can imagine, in GP weekend there are not many rooms available, specially in a popular GP like Monaco. Luckily there were a few places still available and they managed to book two rooms (at outrageous prices though…). As we sat outside the café, we hear a big bang! Just in front of us, a car had crashed against the back of another car!! What an eventful first few hours!! Having sorted out accommodation we went to ours rooms to get ready to go out for dinner.

Opps.... no hotel... no worries it's just GP and Cannes Festival weekend... I am sure you'll find accommodation easily... what about a Presidential suite for €2500 a night?

Nice is quite a pleasant city (except the taxi drivers who are there to rip you off!). The city is very pedestrian friendly and features a good range of restaurants. We headed to the old town where there are plenty of restaurants in the same square. As you would expect on a Saturday night on GP weekend, the place was very busy. Most restaurants serve seafood and they display it outside the restaurant to persuade passing people to select their restaurant. The night was a bit cold so we ensured that we selected one who had heaters. After a bit of hesitation, we finally sat and ordered our meal. I ordered oysters for a starter and a seafood kebab for main course. Both were quite delicious. The meal was accompanied by plenty of wine and with Mike making the choice, needless to say the wine was of a high standard.

Delicious Oysters

Saturday night dinner. All smiling... no wonder, after can't-remember-how-many bottles of wine...

The next day – Grand Prix day – we headed off to Monaco. The best way to get there is by train. I must say I was surprised by how efficient the system was. There are plenty of trains running all morning and each train has probably about 12 double deck wagons. As we arrived in Monaco mid morning, we headed to our stand. We had tickets for stand B, which is located in front of the Casino. We ‘checked in’ at about 11am, just before the Formula Renault started. Formula Renault (also known as Formula 3000) is the competition that provides access to Formula 1. A lot of the current F1 pilots are previous champions of F3000. The race was eventless… except where we were!!! We saw a spin, and two crashes.

Arriving in Monaco - View from the train station

Sortie pour la tribune B - this way please...

After a short break that we used for lunch, it was time for the F1 drivers parade. All drivers are put in the back of a truck and paraded through the circuit while they wave to the crowd. There was another break before the race begun and it was time for a Hagen Daz ice cream (which was delicious by the way). While enjoying our ice cream we could hear the cars travelling to the starting grid. The noise is loud, believe me. But this is what makes watching F1 live so different from the TV. As the race approached, excitement grew. I could not wait to see all the cars coming through at high speed.

Lunch time...

The drivers parade

At 2pm the race begun, first with the formation lap and then 78 laps of competitive racing. There were a few crashes and overtakes, but none was in front of us. We almost saw one – Barrichelo crashed after the starting grid and before the place where we were. We could still see the dust and the car being taken from the track, but the accident itself we could only see it in the big screen in front of us. The pace car had to step in a few times, making any time advantage redundant. However, since it is very difficult to overtake in Monaco, this did not lead to any overtaking… And that was it, the Red Bulls appeared to have ‘wings’ and managed to get the two first spots.

The dust from Barrichelo's crash... a few meters farther and we would have seen it!

Barrichelo's car being pulled

View from the stand

At the end - winners receiving the trophy in the big screen

By the end of the race, we hanged around for a while visiting other parts of Monte Carlo. We headed to the marina area to see all the boats that come to Monaco for the race. On our way there, we had the chance to see some of the dozens of luxury cars that exist in Monaco – Ferrari, Bentley and Rolls Royce just to name a few. We saw so many Ferraris that by the time we went through the Ferrari Garage we were not excited anymore… we had seen it all in the streets before. On race day the many Monte Carlo's bars and cafés are buzzing. Just before the Marina, where many restaurants and cafes are located, there was a party going on, with a band playing live music. They were quite good, playing from traditional bands like U2, Queen and Simple Minds to more recent hits. The party kept going for quite a while, but this was not a surprise given that most who were there were…. Brazilians! If Brazilians are around, you bet they will be partying. And Brazilians did not even do well in the race, so imagine if they had done! After emptying a number of bottles of wine, we headed to the starting grid area of the track and then to the Marina.

Spectacular views on our way to the Marina area

The street party

Everyone having a good time

The party full of Brazilians (otherwise there would be no party...)

Me and my Ferrary - the only way to fit in...

Another (beautiful) Ferrari

The pit stops area was busy with all the teams packing. This is a good opportunity to take a few pictures next to the shinning trucks. It is also an opportunity to look at the ‘behind the scenes’. This was not new for me as during the Estoril races in the nineties I had the chance of walking around the pit stops after the race, including entering the areas where they work on the cars. Still it is interesting to watch some of it again. We also managed to access the podium area and take a few pictures where the drivers had received their trophies a little earlier.

The winners! @ Monaco GP podium

One of the Ferrari's trucks

Although this weekend is about cars, there is a second show going on at the Marina. The number of large yachts is impressive. There are more like mini cruise liners to be honest. Apparently one of the boats there cost 25 million USD. These boats are use for VIP after race parties. They are owned either by sponsors or team owners. While we were there guests started to arrive and we kind of wanted to join in… if anything just to see how those boats look like inside. We hanged around for a while, took a few more pictures and then headed back to the train station to return to Nice. We selected a Vietnamese restaurant in the city centre for dinner. We were pretty knackered after such a long day, but we still had time for a good laugh when one of us (not me) asked Nathan how his 'Pecking dick' was (it was 'Pecking duck'!!!). That made it for the night…

One of the 'small' boats

and another one...

And another one...

On monday our return flight was in the afternoonon so we just chilled out in Nice, first enjoying a nice long breakfast at a café on the seafront and then lunch in the main restaurant area. The flight back was quiet and quick and by 10pm I was back home. A bit tired but satisfied after a wonderful weekend in Côte-D’azur - something to repeat in the near future for sure.

TV interview to the Brazilian Portal terra.com.br

2010-05-30T23:22:00.003+01:00

As I mentioned in one of the earlier blogs reporting about my trip to Brazil, Anhembi Morumbi University arranged an Interview with portal terra and Jovem Pan radio station. The video is now available at this link

http://terratv.terra.com.br/Especiais/Homem/Esportes-Show/4566-294448/Londres-ouve-jovens-para-Olimpiada-2012.htm

As of today, there have been more than 600 views of the interview.

Brazil – Weeks 2 and 3

2010-05-30T23:10:00.006+01:00

After Carnabeirão, I travelled to Niteroi to attend the XI Conference on Community Based Tourism. The conference attracted many delegates from some of the key tourism universities in the Country. The conference was an opportunity to meet again academics I already knew, but also make new contacts. A number of guest lectures have been pre-arranged for a future visit to Brazil, including Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro and Universidade Federal de São Carlos and USP (main campus). I am looking forward to visit these universities in the near future. While at Niteroi, I also delivered another guest lecture at Universidade Federal Fluminense to room packed of students and staff. I believe there were in excess of 120 students.

After an additional short stay in São Paulo, I went further south, first to Curitiba and then to Porto Alegre. In Curitiba I delivered two guests lectures. The first one was to students of Universidade Positivo. Universidade Positivo is a private university owned by the largest education group in Brazil. I was truly impressed with their campus. It is very modern and very well equipped. Besides numerous buildings that host the various faculties, it features a modern library a number of sports halls and two auditoria – one for 2200 and another for 700 people.

With Prof. Dário Paixão from Positivo University

The next day I was hosted by Professor José Gândara at Universidade Federal do Paraná, where I delivered another guest lecture to a packed lecture theatre. While in Curitiba, I also had the chance to meet by friends Zé and Cris (actually I stayed at their place), as well as João, another Portuguese friend. My last night in Curitiba was spend at a football match. The local team Atlético Paranaense played against Palmeiras (from São Paulo) for the Brazil cup. Despite the negative result for the home team (and hence very disappointed supporters) it was an interesting experience – in Brazil they do live the game at a different level.

Me inside the stadium - Go Atletico go!!!

The 'warm up' before the match in a 'boteco' close to the stadium with Zé (the one with the funny smile) and three of his friends

The last stop of the trip was Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state in Brazil. I had never been to this state before – I have now been to 12 states in Brazil (one day I will be able to say I’ve been to all!!). In Porto Alegre I visited PUC-RS, the Catholic University. Their campus is also of a very good standard and the brand new library is outstanding.

All in all, this was a very productive trip. Besides the numerous meetings and the TV/Radio interview, I delivered 7 guest lectures to nearly 500 students and 25 lecturers.

Carnabeirão

2010-04-18T17:41:00.017+01:00

I am a keen fan of Axe-Music (originates from Salvador – Bahia), which is one of the many music genres originating from Brazil. The success of Salvador Carnival (the largest street carnival in the world), which celebrates Axé Music, has led to the development of dozens (if not hundreds) of smaller scale events all year round. The one I attended takes place in Ribeirão Preto, 300km west of São Paulo city. Actually, I starting to write this entry by the swimming pool at the top floor of the hotel, which boosts a nice view over the city, though the city itself is nothing to die for… (PS. As I write this, two black weird looking birds land in the terrace to drink water from the swimming pool). This is not the first time I attend this carnival – I’ve done it in 2008.

I have met many interesting people and yesterday I've also met some friends that I did in 2008. Some of them I did not even know they were coming this year too. Neither did they know that I was coming, so it was a big (and good) surprise for both of us. The weather is very good, it is 3pm the sun is shining and the temperature is around 30ºC. The evenings are a bit cold though, with the temperature going to the mid teens. I am looking forward to the second show by Chiclete com Banana, my favourite Axe-Music band. Yesterday’s was quite good, but I think tonight one is going to be even better as it is the last night of the event.

With Renato, who was dressed as a cow. Renato is the 'clown' who keeps everyone laughing throughout. The sign is saying 'another cow in the event'.

Very close to Bell Marques, the legendary singer from Chiclete com Banana

In the middle of the crowd I met Carol, a friend from São Paulo I've made at Carnabeirão 2008

UPDATE: The second show was really good. After playing for 4h30m yesterday, Chiclete com Banana performed for more than 4 hours again. The atmosphere was amazing, with everyone singing and interacting.

The Carnabeirão 2010 crowd arriving for the last day of the event

With Tim, one of the organisers of the tour

Again, very close to the 'Trio' (Truck), where the band plays

Surprise, surprise! With Bebel and Estela, two girls who I met in the 2008 event

Two of the new friends I've made this year
.

On Saturday lunch was at a 'Xácara' (or farmhouse) a few kilometers away from Ribeirão Preto Town Centre. The lunch was a Churrasco (or Barbecue), with grilled meat and salads served. Alcohol consumption was included in the price - the fruit cocktails were delicious, but one needs to be careful as the portions are very generious... There was a DJ playing national and international hits and mid afternoon there was a fantastic funk performance (another genre of music, originating from Rio de Janeiro's favelas). The MC was brilliant. At the beginning I though it was a CD playing, and to my surprise the guy was singing live! Very, very interactive, with the MC singing most of the famous funk songs. Needless to say, people did get in to singing along. I've made a couple of videos and will try to post them on youtube when I am back in the UK.

The 'galera' on our way to the BBQ

"Tenha fé no azul que está no frevo..." dancing ‘cavalo mambembe’ song. Basically two of more people give hands and move the waist up and down. It is very traditional in Micaretas. Chiclete also sang this song both days.

And that was it, on Monday the 12th very early in the morning I flew to Niteroi in Rio de Janeiro state, to attend the Community-based Tourism Conference and deliver another guest lecture at Fluminense Federal University. I will post about Niteroi in the next entry

Brazil trip - Week 1 (São Paulo)

2010-04-18T17:13:00.013+01:00

I am currently in Brazil on a tour to enhance the profile of Bournemouth University and the School of Services Managament among the tourism and hospitality academic community. This trip involves a series of guest lectures, meetings with ‘study abroad’ agents and the British council, attendance of the Community-based Tourism conference in Niteroi (RJ) and a number of media appearances.

The School of Services Management offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the field of Events, Food, Hospitality, Leisure, Retail, Sport and Tourism and is one of the UK's leading institutions for the study in these areas. Our Tourism Masters Programme is the largest of its kind in the UK, attracting students from around 40 nationalities. However, at the moment we do not attract many students from Brazil, perhaps because we have done little promotional work here. According to the most recent numbers, there are around 10.000 students graduating in a tourism-related degree in Brazil every year. In addition, as the Brazilian economy becomes more international, good command of English is a pre-requirement to get a job, notably with multinationals. The internationalization also requires cross-cultural skills and the international feature of our Masters provide an excellent opportunity to develop these skills. It is also a fact that a much stronger Real (the Brazilian currency) has led to the halving of our fees in Brazilian currency terms when compared to 4 years ago. All these facts suggest that there is an opportunity to attract Brazilian students to our Masters.

The first two guest lectures took place on Wednesday (7^th) at São Paulo University (East Campus). At the East Campus they have both day and evening courses and hence my host, Professor Karina Solha, asked me to talk to both groups of students. The first presentation focused on the future of a Marathon as perceived by its stakeholders. This presentation is based on Jenna le Couillard’s undergraduate dissertation that I supervised. The second presentation focused on the Gastronomic Experience of European Tourists in Portugal. This presentation is based on a series of conference presentations and journal articles undertaken with Professor Antónia Correia (Algarve University) and Carlos Ferreira da Costa (Aveiro University).

Both presentations were very well received and students asked many interesting (and some challenging) questions. In this campus they also have a hotel management degree where students learn and practice cooking skills. The chef who runs the practice kitchens prepared a surprise – Portuguese cabbage soup (or Caldo Verde), which we ate in between the presentations. It was delicious and very Portuguese. There was even Portuguese red wine to drink! (I had one small glass only… there was still one presentation to go!)

The 'caldo verde' soup when finished

Enjoying the 'Caldo Verde' in good company

With Chef José Roberto and Prof. Karina Solha after the second presentation at USP

The next day I delivered a guest lecture to students and academics from Anhembi Morumbi University. The presentation was about the future of a marathon as perceived by its stakeholders. The turnout was really impressive, with more than 70 people attending. The university did a press release announcing the presentation, with one of the key São Paulo state newspapers publishing it in their event calendar section (see below). The presentation was followed by lunch at the University premises. The lunch was prepared and served by hospitality management students. The three course meal was delicious and I had countless classes of pineapple and mint freshly squeezed juice – it was to die for! By the way, the presentation was about the Future of a Marathon as perceived by its stakeholders.

Lunch at Anhembi Morumbi Uiniversity

On Friday 9^th, I did a 30 min TV interview with Wanderley Nogueira for the portal terra.com.br and Joven Pan Radio Station from São Paulo, arranged by the Anhembi Morumbi University Public Relations office. I had never done a TV interview like this, but it was a quite interesting experience. It was very pleasant to talk to Wanderley about the topical area of the organization and legacy of mega-events. Brazil will host the two largest mega-events – The world Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 – and not surprisingly Brazilians and actively debating how to capitalize on the opportunity posed by the events. I will post the link as soon as it is available.

With the Journalist Wanderley Nogueira

On the leisure side, besides catching up with the many friends I have in Sao Paulo, this weekend I am attending one of the many off-season carnivals that takes place around Brazil - Carnabeirão. More about this in the next blog entry.

PhD Studentship - The John Kent Institute

2010-02-25T11:10:00.002Z

Today Bournemouth University is launching the John Kent Institute in Tourism (JKIT) in a function in London. The John Kent Institute in Tourism was established in November 2009 through a gift made to the University by one of the world's leading tourism entrepreneurs, John Kent. This new BU-based Institute will fund a considerable number of PhD studentships in tourism research, starting with eleven PhDs over the next four years. The School of Services Management is respected globally as a centre of excellence for tourism study and research; it boasts the largest cohort of postgraduate tourism students in the UK and is home to the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research (ICTHR), one of the leading research centres of its kind in the world. The new Institute will complement the work of this Centre by attracting high-calibre PhD students to BU.

In 2010, the JKIT is awarding four studentships from 11 research areas. I am involved in the supervision of one of the areas as part of the supervisory team for the project entitled Consumers as producers: the dimensions of consumer-to-consumer co-creation in the event experience. A more detailed description of the project is shown below.

If you think you have (or know someone who has):

outstanding qualities and be motivated to complete a PhD in 3 years
an honours degree at Upper Second Class (2.1) and/or an appropriate Masters degree
an IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 minimum

and, of course, if you are enthusiastic about this research idea, I strongly encourage you (or someone you know) to apply to this studentship.

The application deadline for all studentships is 30 April 2010. For further information go to the John Kent Institute in Tourism page

Miguel

Project Description

Consumers as producers: the dimensions of consumer-to-consumer co-creation in the event experience.

Over the past ten years, many authors have emphasised that western societies have moved on from the 'service economy' to the 'experience economy'. The experience concept emphasises the importance of emotions and the meanings associated with these emotions. The emphasis has, thus, shifted from the technical performance of what is produced to the individual and notably the emotions and personal transformation that result from experiences. Despite the emergence of the 'experience economy', research within consumer experiences is still in its infancy.

From a marketing point of view, the design of products that encapsulate the features of an experience has been hampered by the limited conceptual understanding of what leads to a good experience. The general contention is that experiences result from an individual's interaction with stimuli, which can be divided in to three: the setting, the staff and other participants. While research from an experience point of view is scarce in relation to these three categories, the first two types of stimuli have been the focus of past research through the concept of service quality. The third category has been much less researched, despite its critical importance in the experience of certain product categories such as events and festivals.

Unlike many other products, events are consumed by groups of people who come together to celebrate, honour, discuss, sell, teach about, encourage, observe, or influence human endeavours. The 'social gathering' nature of events means that the interaction between event participants takes on a critical role in shaping the event experience. This interaction between participants implies that, unlike other product categories, the event experience results from both egoistic (the attendee as a consumer) and altruistic (the attendee as producer) behaviours. The recognition that attendees contribute to the construction of the experience leads to the concept of experience co-creation, which is explored in this research. Despite this importance, few studies have been carried out with the specific aim of looking at customer-to-customer interaction, as opposed to the co-creation of the experience with the business itself. Developed from a marketing perspective, this study will employ concepts of consumer psychology and product management to develop a model of co-creation in the event experience. A better understanding of the principles behind co-creation would greatly help experience marketers in planning for better experiences through influencing the co-creation process.

Thailand and Australia: Part I - Bangkok

2010-02-21T13:12:00.022Z

I was abroad the first two weeks in February to attend CAUTHE10 in Hobart, Tasmania, with a stop in Bangkok on the way there to participate in international recruitment activities for Bournemouth University.

Bournemouth University is actively pursuing an internationalisation strategy with a view to attract more international students to study in our post-graduate programmes. The university has identified a range of countries where there is a tradition of studying abroad, one of which is Thailand. In the current academic year, there are around 90 Thai students at BU. The School of Services Management is one of the schools who contributes the most to this number. In the MSc Events Management alone, we have 7 students, around 18% of the total number of students.

I arrived in BKK on Tuesday (2^nd Feb) afternoon. After checking in, I met my friend Pim, who completed her PhD at BU a few years ago, and she took me to dinner on a boat along the Chao Phraya. The boat decoration was quite traditional which created an interesting atmosphere. The food wasn’t too bad and there was a dancing show which was entertaining to watch. Needless to say that at the end of the show all guests were invited to join the dance floor. The choreographies look easy, but they aren’t, especially when you have to bend your fingers backwards! Apparently, girls practice bending their fingers backwards from a young age and when at school girls, so that they can perform the traditional dance.

The next day was ‘acclimatisation’ day. There are 7 hours difference between London and Bangkok and it is a quite long flight (around 11 hours), thus it is wise to have a day to rest so that you deal with the jet leg and tiredness before you start doing any work. I used this day to visit some of the sights, notably the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. Both are a work of art (the pictures talk for themselves – see below). The trip from the hotel to the Palace was made by Tuc Tuc, the motor tricycle that can carry two people. Thais are very business savvy and needless to say that the driver wanted me to buy half the city – first he wanted to take me to a tailor to buy suits and then he ‘advised’ me on the best boat trip (I am sure he would earn a good commission, the price was expensive for Thailand standards...). You just have to be prepared to say ‘no’ and stick to it when they insist.

The palace is located not far from the river and after leaving the palace I started walking along the river through food markets located in (very) old warehouses. These (very run down looking) markets were an amazing experience nonetheless: the smells, the textures, the people are so different from what we have in the UK (or in Portugal). I think I walked through them for nearly 2 hours. Half way through I came through a Peer from where you could cross the river by boat. I did it at the cost of...5p (or 6 cents of the Euro)... That’s what you can call a ‘symbolic’ price for western standards. On the other side there was another very interesting attraction: ‘Wat Arun’. The temple is a quite interesting work of art and boasts good views over the city. The stairs are so steep that you must be very careful when going up and (especially) coming down! After Wat Arun, I returned to the hotel to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the SPA.

Wat Arun Temple

Wat Arun Temple - Steep stairs

Wat Arun Temple - View from the Top

Dry-Smoked Fish Market

Thursday was the first day of work. The whole day was spent at Mahidol University. I was not alone, Pieter Funnekotter from BU’s International Office was there too. Pieter is the International Relations Office in charge of some of the Asian Markets, including Thailand. The morning started with a one hour guest lecture to students and staff of the tourism and hospitality courses @ MUIC (Mahidol University International College). The title of my presentation was “From Service to Experience: Event Managers as Emotion Engineers”. The audience was very engaged throughout and willing to participate in the discussion that ensued. After this session, we opened our stand in the ‘study abroad’ fair that the International College was staging on the day. The fair was quite busy with several dozens of students enquiring about BU (the fair was not restricted to tourism, it was for any area of study). The day ended with a meeting with the Vice-President International Relations of the University, to explore ways in which both universities can cooperate closer, including student and staff exchanges.The next day was spent visiting agents and doing some interviews to prospective students. This was an opportunity to understand in more detail how the recruitment process unfolds.

Finally, on Saturday I spend the whole day attending British Council’s Annual Study Abroad Fair at the Plaza Athenee Bangkok Hotel. This is single most important recruitment event in Thailand and not surprisingly BU has its own stand there. While a bit tiring (what would you expect if you had to stand for nearly 8 hours!), I really enjoyed attending the fair and provide information about BU. The number of enquiries was high, with many of them about the School of Services Management, whether tourism, hospitality or events.

Me, Pieter and Pam at BU's stand

I was flying to Australia at around midnight on Saturday and could not stay for the second day of the fair. Before going to the airport, I still had time for a 1 hour foot and back massage. As you can imagine, after standing all day this was just very welcome!

I really enjoyed my time in Bangkok and I am looking foward to return.

ESRC Bursary - The STORMING Initiative

2010-01-15T15:52:00.007Z

The increasing importance and profile of sport tourism as a valuable field of research has been recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ERSC) in the United Kingdom, with the awarding of grant funding for a major international sport tourism project entitled ‘The STORMING Initiative’ - The Sport Tourism Opportunities for Research, Mobility and International Networking Group. The project, coordinated by Richard Shipway, a leading researcher in the field of sport tourism from Bournemouth University, is offering fifteen travel and conference bursaries for UK-based early career researchers to each attend one of three international sport tourism networking events. I have been awarded one of such bursaries and will be heading off down under to attend CAUTHE2010, the annual conference of the Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education. The conference takes place in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, between the 8th and 11th February. By attending the conference I hope to further develop research opportunities across existing and emerging international sport tourism networks with a view to contribute to further develop sport tourism research.

My research project is entitled “A logistic regression model for analyzing the determinants of golf tourists’ satisfaction”. Tourist satisfaction is a part of tourist behaviour that impacts on the competitiveness of golf tourism destinations and includes loyalty, word of mouth and complaint behaviour. The general contention is that satisfaction is a necessary condition for loyalty and positive word of mouth, and to avoid tourist complaints. Therefore, golf tourism destinations need to pay particular attention to not only how satisfied golf tourists are but also what factors determine their satisfaction. This research aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in this field by examining golf tourists’ satisfaction. This aim will be met through achieving three objectives: (1) to investigate the determinants of golf tourists’ satisfaction; (2) to critically evaluate the use of logistic regression in the context of golf tourists’ satisfaction; and (3) to examine the extent to which country of origin influences golf tourists’ satisfaction. A survey of golf tourists visiting Lisbon (Portugal) is used as a basis for achieving the objectives of this research.

BU Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning

2010-01-15T14:58:00.001Z

On the 15th December I received my award for an outstanding contribution to student learning. The Bournemouth University Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning recognises and celebrates staff whose activities have made a significant contribution to the quality of student learning in a specified area over a sustained period. My award was on "Innovative Assessment Practices: Client-Based Assessment and Waypoint".

My application for the BU Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning was underpinnined in two assessment experiences. One of such experiences is the design of the Leisure/Event Innovation coursework, which is underpinned in the 'client-based assessment' concept. I have been working on improving this coursework for a number of years and much has been achieved. The coursework challenges and engages the students, while at the same provides them the opportunity to learn and practice important skills to their future professional success. The second experience involves using waypoint to provide student feedback. Waypoint is a software that provides organised, detailed and personalised feedback to students. BU’s corporate plan places emphasis on the student experience as a key performance indicator. Employing waypoint makes an important contribution to student experience by improving the quality of the feedback.

Visão Supplement on Post-Graduate Studies

2010-01-15T14:57:00.001Z

I have finally managed to get a copy of Visão's Supplement on Post-Graduate Study in Portugal (Published in September), which features a report about how we use technology to support the learning and teaching process at BU. It also mentions some of the ways I use it in my own teaching practice, including the use of blogs and bank of comments software. The title of the report is 'A look at the future' and runs over two pages. Visão is the most read newsweek magazine in Portugal.

New Journal Article in ANATOLIA

2009-12-08T15:50:00.004Z

Today I received the hardcopy of the paper published in ANATOLIA: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research. The paper, entitled "The determinants of intention to purchase leisure travel over the Internet", was publised in Vol. 20, Number 2, pp. 345-358. This paper is still based on my PhD thesis.

ABTRACT: More than 10 years on since the launch of the Internet, there are clear differential levels of adoption of the Internet for purchasing leisure travel across countries. In some countries, such as Portugal, only a minority of travel purchasing is conducted over the Internet. This paper aims to contribute to a greater understanding of adoption of purchasing over the Internet by evaluating the determinants of intention to adopt the Internet for purchasing leisure travel. A number of variables are used to assess which factors influence intention, including the attributes of purchasing over the Internet (relative advantage and complexity), involvement, and the stage in the e-commerce adoption path. Kruskal-Wallis and logistic regression were employed and the results indicated that relative advantage, involvement and stage in the e-commerce adoption path were important predictors of the intention to purchase leisure travel over the Internet, while complexity was not.

A note on current times...

2009-11-17T17:06:00.003Z

Trying to make sense of the world where we live is one of my ongoing interests. My emphasis is trying to understand the reasons for the current economic (and social) situation. To be able to do this, one needs to take a step back and look at history. I am a firm believer that history repeats itself to a great extent. From time to time I come across certain sentences that are a great help to put things in to perspective. The first one, by Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian, certainly gives you food for thought. If one accepts his view, which stage are we in? If you answer the question correctly, you know what is coming next... I have made my mind...

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

The second one is by Mahatma Gandhi

“The things that will destroy us are, politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice"

Ask youself this questions about the western society:

* Do our politics have principles?

* Do we have pleasure with conscience?

* Is our wealth based on work?

* Do our businesses have a high moral standard?

* Is our science based on humanity principles?

MSc Events Management @ BU

2009-11-15T00:57:00.003Z

The School of Services Management @ Bournemouth University holds the largest Tourist Masters in the UK. We have been at the top for more than a decade and each year we host around 120 students from more than 30 countries. Following the successful launch of the BA (Hons) Events Management in 2005 and the recruitment of a number of staff (including myself) since then, the school launched a MSc in Events Management in 2007. Starting this September I was also made the pathway leader for this Masters.

I am pleased to say that the MSc Events Management is already a tremendous success. This year we saw the number of students growing to 40 (from 23 last year and 13 in the first year), which makes it the largest Events Masters in the UK. The 40 students originate from 17 different countries, with half the students coming from Asian countries (mainly China, Thailand and Taiwan) and the other half from Africa (Kenya) and Europe. The group of students is very enthusiastic, which makes teaching them so much more interesting. I am looking forward to continue working with such an engaged and culturally diverse set of students.

III International Congress Leiria and West

2009-11-15T00:35:00.000Z

Next week I am presenting a paper at the III International Congress Leiria and West (Peniche, Portugal). My paper, co-authored with Nuno Ricardo Dias from the Estoril Higher Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies (ESHTE), focuses on the satisfaction of golf tourists’ in the Lisbon Promotional Region (Portugal). During my stay in Portugal, I am also delivering a guest lecture at the school where I graduated and later worked for 10 years (ESHTE).

The "Bournemouth Matrix"

2009-11-14T23:17:00.007Z

The new academic year is under way, in fact we are already half way through the first term! This has been a pretty hectic term and I cannot complaint of lack of work... I am unit tutor for three undergraduate units:

Leisure Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing)
Event Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Events Management)
Consumer Experience & Behaviour (Year two; BA (Hons) Events Management)

I am also the leader for the Events Principles and Practice unit for the MSc in Events Management.

These four units account for 340 undergraduate students and 40 Masters students! Fair enough, I am noyt teaching them alone - that would be impossible. The Event/Leisure Innovation units are co-taught with Pearl Morrison and the EPP unit with Caroline Jackson and Debbie Sadd.

The content of the units is pretty much the same as in previous years, however I had to create something new for the LI/EI units. As I have reported in previous entries, in these units students have to develop a new leisure product/event for a real organisation. As part of the process, students need to examine the organisation’s product portfolio. One of the most methods employed to analyse an organisation’s product portfolio is the Boston Matrix. The focus of the Boston Matrix is on the relationship between the product and its market. Yet, sometimes it is not possible to clearly define the market for certain products. Recognising some weaknesses in the Boston Matrix, notably the fact that other variables than market share and market growth may be important means of analysing product portfolios, the General Electric (GE) matrix was developed. This matrix analyses each product based on market attractiveness (a measure of industry attractiveness) and business position (a measure of competitive position).

The currently existing product planning matrices were formulated for business with clearly identifiable business units (SBUs). However, some businesses/organisations might not contain a range of clearly identifiable SBUs. In many cases, one businesses contains only one SBU – the business itself. Yet, the product offered by that business could be made up of different sub-products, that together contribute to the organisation’s competitiveness.

One category where one SBU might consist of a number of products is service-based experiences. Experiential products are different from other types of products in that for a single price the person consumes a range of products (or sub-experiences). For example, visitor attractions are made up of a number of product propositions. These could include one core product (entertainment) and two supporting products (food and retail opportunities). The entertainment product, in turn, is usually made up of several components. If Farmer Palmers, a farm themed attraction for children under 8, is used as an example, its entertainment consists of pedal tractors, milking the cow, forest walk and straw mountain (just to name a few). In a similar vein, a fitness centre is made up of, for example, three products: Gym (core product), Spa/Beauty Centre and Café (Supporting products). The Gym, in turn is made up of several components, including group classes, weights and cardio fitness. Some of these components could even be further divided. For example, the cardio fitness component consist of different sub-components, such as treadmills, exercise bikes and rowing machines.

This indicates that often:

leisure products consist of several components which are consumed at a single price. These individual components do not generate income independently of others (at least objectively) given the pricing structure. Together, they contribute to generate income through the single price charged for the consumption of the core product. Yet, existing matrices focus on a clearly identify business unit, capable of generating income independently of other products. They have not been designed to perform product analyses when it is not possible to establish revenues or units sold.
no information is available as to the size of the market (entire demand or supply) for each of these products/components. It is virtually impossible to establish the market for pedal tractors, straw mountains, treadmills and rowing machines. It is also difficult (if not impossible) to establish the market size of supporting products (such as retail and food)

Thus, product portfolio analyses within the service-based leisure industries should be based on a different anchor that the notion of ‘market’. What I suggest as an alternative is to adopt an experiential ‘anchor’ as the basis for undertaking product portfolio analyses in the service-based leisure industries. The resulting matrix is tentatively called the “Bournemouth Matrix”. The proposed matrix analyses products (or their components) in relation to two areas: consumer appeal and development potential.

· Consumer appeal refers to how much a product (or component) contributes to the overall experience provided by the leisure organisation. Another way of looking at consumer appeal is to examine to what extent the withdrawal of that product (or component) would impact on how appealing the organisation would be to actual or potential consumers. Evidence to plot products (or components) along this axe could include: actual usage and consumer feedback (including consumer surveys).

· Development potential refers to the extent to which a particular product (or component) can be changed to enhance the customer experience (in terms of appealing/satisfying consumers more or satisfying a larger number of consumers). Establishing the development potential of products and components could result from an analysis of factors internal and external to the product or component.

A more complete version of the matrix has been developed and an 8 page support document produced. Students are now applying the matrix to their allocated organisation and if the matrix proves to be useful to a wide range of organisations within the leisure industries, then I will ‘formally’ publish it.

PS: As this is working in progress, no reference to the Bournemouth Matrix should be made without my previous consent. If you wish to discuss its use, contact me mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Blog Updates

2009-10-27T23:11:00.002Z

Dear Readers
Thanks for visiting my blog! Apologies for not updating it more frequently, but these have been very busy times. I've just 'survived' the beginning of another academic year. I am now trying to catch up. I have finished posting my 'Going East' journey (III- New Zealand; IV The Cook Islands) and will in the next few days post about other topics, including the Cancer Research UK 10k Run and the beginning of the new academic year. I've also got two sets of good news, but I will not spoil the surprise. You'l have to wait a few more days! Ok, one involves travelling East again :-)!
Cheers
M

Going East IV - The Cook Islands

2009-10-27T22:38:00.012Z

Two years ago, after attending the Event Research Conference in Melbourne, I travelled to Fiji for a holiday. The Pacific Islands are beautiful and an excellent location to relax as well as to have some fun. This time I wanted to change location and after much consideration I decided to go to the Cook Islands (the initial plan was Tonga). I’ll never know if Tonga would have been better, but the CI choice was certainly a good one! I loved my week there J.

First, I travelled through the time line. That means departing from AKL on a Wednesday and arriving in Rarotonga on Tuesday! Confused? I was too...

I decided to stay in basic accommodation – as I was travelling alone the last thing I wanted was to end up in a luxury hotel full of honeymooners! (with me holding the candle J). So I joined the backpackers lot and stayed at Vara’s Beach Resort after reading good reviews on tripadvisor. The accommodation is very basic, but the crowd was fantastic! Sharing a room might be unimaginable for some, but if you want to meet people and socialise it is the best thing. In Fiji I had stayed in a dorm with 114 beds at Beachcomber Island!! This one was much smaller – 5 beds only and thus more private. While I was there, I had four girls as roomies (lucky me!): One Scottish, one Irish and two English (so long for me having a few days away from ‘Britishness’). They were good fun and we laughed a lot.

Arriving in Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

View of Muri Lagoon

View of Muri Lagoon from Vara's Resort Deck

Roomies Jenn, Mandy and Hannah, plus Stephen (in black)

The hostel was right in from of Muri Lagoon, in the most beautiful part of the Island. To wake up to this view for 7 days is an amazing experience. Nor surprisingly there was a lot of partying going on. There were two organised parties, one was a fancy dress party and the other a ‘pub crawl’. Mind that there are only 3 or 4 bars/nightclubs in Rarotonga, so you know where you’ve to go... The first party was the fancy dress party. Matt is an Australian who runs Vara’s Shack. He organises deep sea fishing trips (he’s also the skipper of a boat) as well as many other types of entertainment (including the organised parties). There’s a theme for every week – a letter of the alphabet. The week I was there the letter was G (some people were lucky enought to be there for the E, F, G and H parties!!!). The rule is that you need to produce your own costume – you cannot buy one (but you can buy some ‘ingredients’ to design yours). I dressed up as Global Warming (and the proof that it exists). There was a geek, a gladiator, two gipsies, guns & roses, just to name a few. The interesting thing is that the experience of the event starts much earlier, the day before the event Matt and others (including me) sat down and brainstormed ‘things’ starting with G. Needless to say that some people were very ‘inspired’... The other party was a pub crawl (on the Friday). Both parties were very good I (alcohol is not expensive there, which helped!), though I’ll refrain from making comments about the next day...

Fancy Dress Party

The crowd was so entertaining and sociable that I spent most days around Muri Beach. On Sunday I attended a religious service (mass), which is something unique and recommended to anyone who visits the island. The natives sing (both in English and Maori) and the whole experience is quite interesting. They even offer you biscuits and coffee at the end! Hannah (Irish) and Jenn (Scottish), two of my roomies, were my fellow churchgoers.

Before I left, I had the chance to dedicate one day to water activities. In the morning I went deep sea fishing and in the afternoon scuba diving. The deep sea fishing was very good. We caught to yellow fin tuna (part of one tuna was my dinner that day! Had half a kilo of tuna sashimi...)! But the best part was that the fishing trip turned in to a whale watching trip. Humpback whales hang around the island during the winter in south pole, and we were lucky to see 7 or 8 of them, a couple of which were very close to the boat!

The two yellow fin tunas that we caught (I pulled one... hard work and these are small fish, around 5/6kg each)

Humpback Whale, very close to the boat (no zoom used!)

Needless to say, the Scuba diving was also amazing. Lots of colourful fish! It is so peaceful down there! I am becoming a big fan of scuba diving and am looking forward to get PADI accreditation soon so that I can dive up to 20/30 meters.

I spent an amazing week in the Cook Islands, and when I look back what made it, most of all, was the people I met! The island is beautiful, the locals friendly, but it was the group of people who were at Vara’s Resort that made is an amazing week. I shall go back one day!

Going East III – New Zealand

2009-10-27T21:34:00.013Z

My next stop was New Zealand. I flew to Auckland (the biggest city) before travelling down to Wellington (the capital city) where I met my friend Eli. I took an early flight, the day was bright and luckily I also got a window seat. To my surprise, we flew over mount Taranaki (whichI had never heard of) and the view from the plane was just amazing. The above picture is not mine, but it give an idea of what I am talking about! Not bad for a first sight of New Zealand! Mt Taranaki is a 2518-metre-high mountain and one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak, on the south side.

Mount Taranaki

Arrived in Wellignton, I met Eli. I know Eli from Bournemouth since she did her PhD here (back in 2003) and then got a job at Massey University in Palmerston North (2 hours north of Wellington). Meanwhile she got married to Shane (a Kiwi) and they have now got to beautiful daughters: Viana and Alexia.

Alexia (left) and Viana (right). This picture was taken at 7.30am... hence our faces!

We spent the night in Wellington and the next day they showed me the main tourist spots. Wellington is a nice city, though I would not want to land there when it’s windy! The airport runaway is surrounded by mountains! We were lucky with the weather (at least I was told so!) as the morning was quite sunny (albeit very cold!). The day started with a very nice English type breakfast at Smith the Grocer a café located in a boutique shopping centre – The Old Bank Arcade. The place is really well done, the food and coffee were great, I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast.

Next, we visited some of the key tourist areas, including the top entrance of Wellington Botanic Garden and the Museum of New Zealand. You access the Botanic Garden by Cable Car, which takes from the lower area near the waterfront to the top of one of the Mountains that made up Wellington. From the top you can appreciate part of the city, including the bay. After a short walk through the beautiful Botanic Garden, we returned to lower grounds and visited the national museum. This is a very interesting museum and we were lucky because there was a performance of traditional Maori singing inside.

Cable car

View from the Botanic Gardens

Canoe - Museum of New Zealand

Because they had to pick up the kids from Shane’s parents (half way through Wellington and Palmertson North), we left Wellington mid afternoon. The next day was dedicated to visiting Palmerston North and surrounding areas. The city itself has little to see, but the landscape around the city is quite interesting. We visited a giant wind farm, and had lunch at a local farm where we enjoyed local food. I left Palmertson North the next day, travelling to Auckland with a short stop in Rotorua. It was great to see Eli again and meet her family.

The journey to Rotorua was quite interesting, albeit a bit long (nearly 5 hours). We travelled through Lake Taupo. Unfortunately, it was raining with low clouds and we could not see much of the volcanos around the Lake. The 24 hours spent in Rotorua were intense. The city is known for its geothermal activity, with a number of geysers and hot mud pools located in the city. Rotorua city is renowned for its unique "rotten eggs" aroma, which is caused by the geothermal activity releasing sulphur coumponds into the atmosphere. These can be seen throughout the city. I attended a Maori show which included dinner. It was not a very pleasant experience at the beginning because I had the worst head ache! Fortunately I sat next to a doctor (from England) and as a good doctor she had paracetamol with her! The show itself was interesting and the food was cooked according to the Maori Tradition (Called Hangi).

Maori Show

The next day I just walked around town and before taking the bus to Auckland I paid a visit to the Polynesian Spa for an hour of pure relaxation! This spa has been considered one of the best 10 Spas in the world. The setting is really amazing! There are four pools at different temperatures. Not surprisingly without knowing this I entered the hottest one first which was a little unpleasant... It was cold outside (10ºC), but it felt great to be in warm water just chilling out. I think the picture talks for itself :-)

Polynesian Spa

I was time continue my journey towards Auckland and after a night there, it was time to fly to warmer waters – the Cook Islands!!! After a week in the CI (see next post for a report), I returned to Auckland, where I spent two nights before returning to the UK. I did this stop to talk at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute and meet colleagues from Auckland University of Technology. This was possible because Professor Nigel Hemmington, who was the Dean of the School of Services Management @ BU for nearly 10 years (that is, my boss!) is now the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at AUT (the school of tourism and hospitality and the NZTRI are part of this faculty). On Thursday I caught up with Nigel, who showed me a bit of Auckland downtown before our lunch in the university’s practice restaurant (where hospitality students practice). I was impressed with the food and services. I was given really different things to try: a starter in a shot glass with a mussel inside! as well as an ice cream made of a stinky (and I mean STINKY) Asian fruit. The next day I talked to a NZTRI audience about the gastronomic experience of European tourists in Portugal. During my visit I also had the chance to meet some of their staff, including Simon Milne (Director of the NZTRI) and Jane Legget. The presentation was very well received by the audience made up of around 25 PhD students, practitioners and academics.

With Simon Milne and Jane Legget from the NZTRI

New Zealand is a very beautiful country and I am looking forward to go back and spend more time travelling around. Though I’ve learned the lesson! Visit the Country in the summer, because winters are very cold (and we’ve got enough cold in the UK)

Going East II – Australia

2009-08-29T01:06:00.009+01:00

The second leg the journey took place in the Gold Coast, Australia, where I attended the International Event Management Summit, which incorporated the ACEM 5th International Event Management Research Conference (6-7 July) and the 3rd Event Education and Research Network (8 July). I presented two papers, one on event stakeholders and another on festival satisfaction. Below you can find the titles and the abstracts of both papers:

THE FUTURE OF A MARATHON AS PERCEIVED BY ITS STAKEHOLDERS

Caroline Jackson, Miguel Moital and Jenna Le Couillard

This paper is a result of Jenna’s undergraduate dissertation that I supervised. Jenna did very well (she got a first!) and me and Caroline picked up on her work and improved it in order to submit it to the conference. I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach some bright students who are able to do research that is good enough for publication. In addition to Jenna’s dissertation, I’ve got two other dissertations that could lead to papers (one definitely will). Not only Jenna’s chosen research topic is very relevant, but she did a very good job developing a creative methodology and collecting good quality primary data.

The aim of her research was to identify if the continuation of the event was supported by its stakeholders and what their objectives were for its future. The research attempted to understand if the stakeholders desired event growth, and if so, in which areas and to what level. Jenna adapted Shoemaker’s (1995) scenario planning process to suit the research. She developed three scenarios that were presented to the stakeholders: a small scale event, medium scale event and large scale event and within these scenarios a range of event features were covered. The overall finding was that the stakeholders wanted to maintain the event and to support its growth. They viewed the Marathon as currently being a small scale event with elements of a medium scale event and saw it growing to become a medium scale with elements of a large scale event. A key finding was that the stakeholders had conflicting views throughout and this was due to their varying backgrounds and objectives for the event. These potential differences will need to be carefully managed by the event organisers if the future development of the event is to be successful.

EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF EMOTIONS TO FESTIVAL SATISFACTION USING LOGISTIC REGRESSION

Miguel Moital, Caroline Jackson, Mary-Beth Gouthro

This paper is based on a study focusing on festival satisfaction that I am doing together with the two co-authors (and colleagues at BU) of the paper. The reason to write this paper came from the conclusion that past studies on consumer satisfaction have tended to focus on ‘cognitive’ determinants of satisfaction. In other words, they seek explanation to festival satisfaction on a range of specific (more or less tangible) attributes of the festival. Yet, in experience-based products, such as festivals, this may not be sufficient to fully understand the determinants of satisfaction. Emotions are at the centre of experiences and therefore we argue that these should also be incorporated in satisfaction models.

Therefore, in this paper we sought to examine the determinants of festival satisfaction and to understand the extent to which emotion is a determinant of festival satisfaction. Using the Beach Break Live Festival (UK) as a case study and logistic regression as the analytical technique, the results show that emotions do contribute to explaining festival satisfaction in addition to cognition. Moreover, positive emotions were the single most important determinant of overall satisfaction. Satisfaction with Food & Drink, Staff, Facilities and Information & Organisation were also found to influence participants’ satisfaction. We conclude by discussion implications for theory and practice.

If you wish to receive a copy of any of these papers, send me an email to mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk

My colleagues Dorothy Fox, Debbie Sadd and Richard Shipway also presented papers at this conference (Yes, BU was the foreign university with the largest representation at the conference).

Dorothy presented a paper on The contribution of an events programme to sustainable heritage conservation: a study of the National Trust in England. The paper, co-authored with Nicola Johnson, explores the various ways in which the National Trust’s programme of events has been developed to contribute to sustainable heritage conservation. The method they used for this case study consisted of the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data. The former obtained through in-depth interviews with key personnel within the National Trust, with secondary data from the National Trust and other sources used in support. The findings show the Trust’s events play a vital role in educating the public in sustainability, in respect of both natural and cultural heritage. The interview participants revealed that the events are conceived in two main ways – first, a topdown approach whereby events relate to a national organisational campaign and secondly, events which develop from the bottom-up and reflect the uniqueness of each of the Trust’s properties. This study therefore extends the prevailing approach to events and sustainable development by considering the very positive contribution of an events programme to heritage conservation, which has implications for other conservation bodies throughout the world.

Dorothy

Debbie’s presentation, entitled London 2012 – Will it be regeneration or renaissance in times of financial crisis? (co-authored with Ian Jones), focussed on the ‘regeneration’ that is proposed for the residents in the area of the Olympic Park developments in the Lower Lea Valley in London. The study (undertaken as part of her PhD) is based upon the detailed examination of two past Games and their impacts upon the local residents of the Olympic venues, in Sydney, 2000 and Barcelona 1992. The study evaluates the impacts of the planning for London 2012 to date on the local residents through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. This study also examines the impact of the global credit crisis upon the legacy planning and highlights some of the impacts already being seen with regard to the changes being made by the Olympic Delivery Authority to the original bid documentation.

Debbie

Richard presented a paper entitled Sporting events, distance running and the ‘third place’. His paper, based on his doctoral studies, adds to the limited body of knowledge on sports events by exploring the social world of active sports event participants. In his paper, the experiences of active sports event participants are explored at a selection of international distance running events. Preliminary results suggest that a key aspect of the sports event experience is that the event provides access to a social environment of like-minded people, especially within the event setting. Within these research results, the key emerging theme and direction of this study is to explore the role of sporting events as a ‘third place’ outside of the home and work environment.

Richard :-)

On the last day of the conference, the BU team met a number of academics from Victoria University. Professor Leo Jago is a visiting professor at BU, and we took this opportunity to discuss possible projects between academics of the two institutions.

Academic staff from Victoria University and Bournemouth University

After the conference, I stayed in the area for a two week holiday. My first stop was New Zealand. I will post about it over the next few days.

Going East I – Singapore

2009-08-29T00:36:00.013+01:00

Apologies to all readers for not posting recently, but I was away most of July and the first two weeks in August and then I was catching up with some work. Undergraduate students are not around, but the work does not stop...

On the 2nd of July, a day after the Events Management exam board, I took off to ‘the other side of the world’ to attend the Event Research Conference in Australia. I went with three colleagues (Caroline Jackson, Dorothy Fox and Debbie Sadd). Travelling to Australia involves a very long flight. Two years ago, when I went to the same conference (in Melbourne), I flew to Australia directly and closer to the conference. This was a mistake... I struggled to be fully awake at the conference due to the jet leg! I can barely remember my presentation of two years ago as I was so sleepy. This time I did not do the same mistake. We flew a couple of days earlier, to have enough time to acclimatise and get used to the different time.

Instead of travelling directly to Australia, we decided to stop in Singapore (there are only 2 hours difference between Singapore and Queensland). For the first time I flew with Singapore Airlines and the flight from London to Singapore was on the… A380! Beautiful plane, very comfortable seat, outstanding entertainment system, excellent service and delicious food! I guess by now you have realised that I loved flying with SingaporeAir. From now on, I will fly with them if I can – having a good airline when flying long haul makes a difference.

The A380

We took this opportunity to visit Singapore and to make some contacts with local educational institutions. We visited Temasek Poytechnic and a private further education institute. We were very well received by Sandra, our host at Temasek Poly. The Poly offers culinary arts courses and the students work on some of the cafes and restaurants with their premises. We had a ‘comfort stop’ at one of these and the food was simply delicious. Look at the picture below! Mouth watering indeed.

Delicious food. OK, a third of the table contains my food! Greedy Miguel! Just could not resist trying the food. I had the soup on the left, the japanese style food next to it and the yellow cake at the bottom of the picture.

Starting on my right: Caroline, Sandra, Dorothy and Debbie

Needless to say that we also used our free time to visit some of the hotspots in Singapore. The Youth Asian Games were on and on Saturday we went to Sentosa Island to attend the Beach Voleyball tournament.

Sentosa Island, with the event taking place in the background

On the only night we spent in Singapore we did the famous ‘night safari’. It was an interesting experience. Basically it is a zoo, with the animals spread over a large area (unlike city zoos), but you have the chance to see the animals at night.

At the night safari

Just before resuming our journey to Australia, we had time to taste one of the symbols of Singapore – the Singapore Sling Cocktail. Of course, we did it where it should be: at the Raffles Hotel. The cocktail was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon between 1910 and 1915. It is very tasty but you should not drink too many… the recipe includes Gin, Cherry Brandy, Cointreau and Dom Benedictine. We had only one as we were a few hours away from flying to Brisbane...

Cheers! Enjoying the Singapore Sling Cocktail at the Raffles Hotel

Australia, NZ and more

2009-07-10T04:12:00.004+01:00

I am currently on the other side of the world. Earlier this week I attended the 5th Event Research Conference in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. On my way to Australia, I stopped in Singapore for 36h. This was quite an interesting experience. Singapore is worth visiting. I am now in New Zealand. I will spend the night in Wellington, before travelling to Palmerston North (visit a friend) and then to Rotorua. It is quite cold in NZ. The sky was clear and on my way from Auckland to Wellington the plane went through an old volcano covered in snow. The view was amazing and I regret not having my camera at hand to take pictures. This was a taster of what NZ has to offer... so I am looking forward to see more beautiful spots. As I am writting this post from an Internet cafe in Wellington, the background music just started playing a Portuguese song!!! Marisa is the singer's name and she sings fado. A little weird...

Next week I will be travelling to one of the (paradisiac) south pacific islands for a holiday - I will tell you later which one! I will then come back to Auckland, where I will be talking at the New Zealand Travel Research Institute, as well as visiting Auckland University of Technology. Then it is time to fly back to the UK...

I already have lots of pictures and stories to tell, but I don't think I will be able to post them before arriving in the UK at the end of the month (but I will try...). Stay tuned!

M

Presentation at AEME's Forum

2009-06-27T23:55:00.008+01:00

On the 18-19 June I travelled to Huddersfield (Northern England) to attend the 7th AEME Events Management Educators Forum. AEME (Association of Event Management Educators) is an association of educational institutions set up to advance the education of the public in the subject of events and events management. More specifically, it aims to support and raise the profile of the events discipline through the sharing of education and best practice.

This year’s theme was “Continuing Professional Development or Continuing to Develop the Professionals?”. The aim of the forum was to explore the roles, in partnership, that industry and educators have in continuing to develop current and future events professionals, including through continuing professional development. One of the teaching innovations I introduced this academic year was a closer link between the student work and the ‘real’ world and therefore this experience could provide a valuable contribution to the forum’s theme.

The unit is called Leisure Product (Event Innovation from October) and a piece of coursework was designed to meet the objectives of the unit, which revolve around exploring innovation and new product development theory and apply this knowledge to a real organisation. At the same time, the coursework had to give students the opportunity to reflect on their current knowledge of innovation and new product development, with a view to reflect on the key areas of the unit that they think are important with regard to their academic development and future employment.

The coursework involves developing a new event, for which students have to follow a step by-step process, divided in two stages:

Consultancy report (first term) - The aim of the consultancy report is to identify the company’s current market situation and to identify the gap in the market place.
Group presentation - The group presentation resembles an executive briefing to the management of the company. This presentation is for students to make a ‘business case’ for the new event they have developed for the company. The presentation follows a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style, where students present the business case in front of ‘dragons’, with a view to obtain their support for its development and launch.

The coursework has now run for 4 years, and over this period many changes have been made following an analysis of student performance. Until last year, groups were free to select the company they wished to employ as their case study. This caused a number of problems. For example, most groups selected companies for which incomplete information was available, hindering their ability to undertake a thorough internal and external analysis of the organisation. From an assessor’s point of view, it also made it difficult to compare student performance given the diversity of organisations and products that resulted from such flexible approach. In one seminar, I could go from wakes at the Golden Hinde (an old boat located in London), to a event at Swizzels Matlow (a candy factory) for former employees, to environmentally friendly weddings at the Eden Project! It is not surprising that at times it was difficult to keep track of all students’ proposals (there were around 25 groups)…

While what we were doing was already interesting and relevant for the students, for 08-09 a number of changes were implemented. One of the most relevant was the allocation of a specific organisation to each seminar group (there were 5 seminar groups of around 30 students each). This change in particular had a tremendous impact on student performance and engagement. Overall, we (me and my colleague Pearl Morrison, who is a co-tutor of the unit) feel that the right ‘formula’ was found. The allocation of an organisation to each seminar group allowed students to visit the organisation’s premises (we selected local companies) at the beginning of the academic year, while accessing detailed information via information packs provided by each organisation (e.g. strategic plans, marketing plans, financial data). In addition, managers of the organisations attended the presentations at the end of the year (they were one of the ‘dragons’). These changes led to students working in a much more ‘real’ context: working with a real organisation, real information and to real dragons.

In order to establish whether the coursework was perceived as an appropriate method for the unit, notably after the implementation of the changes, an evaluation of the experience was made that involved:

discussions with each of the seminar groups at the end of stage 1.
An online questionnaire at the end of stage 2
A brief email interview with the managers of the organisation allocated to each of the five groups

My session at the AEME Forum shared the experience of this unit with participants. The results of the evaluation process were presented at the forum. The main points emerging from the focus group were:

A sense of satisfaction of completing a consultancy report
A feeling of relief/satisfaction/pride
The opportunity to learning some of the theories/models (applicable in the real world)
More motivated by a real organisation than an ‘imaginary one’
‘A chance to be creative’

In summary, the consultancy report was deemed ‘Challenging, interesting & worthwhile’ as well as ‘Useful, stressful & educational’

As far as the questionnaire is concerned (answered by 52% of the students who did the unit):

95% said that having a real organisation was very or extremely useful
Around 80% of students indicated that the coursework has improved their communication & presentation skills, as well as their ability to work in groups.
The same proportion (80%) said they learnt a lot from the dragons’ feedback (tutors and managers)

Overall students were very pleased with the nature of the work – around 4 out of 5 were satisfied or very satisfied, with the remaining 10% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Only 7% were dissatisfied with the coursework.

All managers expressed that they were impressed with students’ effort and found it worth the investment in time. Several managers volunteered to do it again in the future. Some of the business cases were very good. Managers showed excitement about some of the business proposals and some expressed an intention to take some of the ideas forward with the help of students (on a voluntary basis).

Taken together, these results are quite positive. Yet, I am still not happy that 7% of students were unhappy (and a further 10% were not happy). Our own experience and the feedback allowed us to identify areas that need to be addressed and we are hopeful that once implemented they will improve the level of student (and our!) satisfaction with the coursework and the unit.

The experience was deemed relevant enough by the university, which organised a press release covering the dragon’s den presentations. We believe this experience could be relevant to others teaching events (or other business related courses), and therefore we are planning to write a paper about it. I will keep you updated about any developments in this front. Thank you for reading this post till the end!

'Learning & Teaching'

2009-06-26T00:39:00.009+01:00

I have been posting mostly about my research and my life, now it is time to close the 'triangle' and talk about my teaching.

I am fairly new to the world of learning and teaching/pedagogy in higher education, despite my 14 year (!) career in higher education. I started my career in higher education in Portugal (where I worked for 10 years) and higher education pedagogy was simply not in the agenda. I did not have to have any teaching qualification to teach in higher education (?!). While I was doing the best I knew and I could, in all honesty I was ‘doing’. The skills or knowledge to reflect on the nature of learning and my own practice were not there. For example, I had never thought about the definition of learning, let alone hearing about concepts such as ‘deep and surface learning’, ‘constructive alignment’ and ‘formative and summative feedback’.

Since I joined Bournemouth University, this has changed dramatically. Learning & Teaching are a central activity for any UK academic institution, and BU is no exception. At the earliest opportunity I enrolled on the Post-Graduate Certificate (PGCert) in Academic Practice, which BU offers for free to all the academic staff (lecturers or support staff). Two years ago (when I did it) it was still optional, now it has become compulsory (if you do not hold a teaching qualification yet).

The PGCert was a fantastic experience and it really opened my eyes to a complete new world. Yet, this new world should not have been new for someone with 10 years experience in higher education. I realised that I had been doing a job (i.e. facilitating student learning) for which I had no training whatsoever! For an academic, who among other things attempts to convince businesses that they should be recruiting individuals with an events management degree because they have been well trained to do the job, it does not look good! In Portuguese we would use the expression “em casa de ferreiro, espeto de pau” (means something like this: "only wooden kebab sticks are used at a blacksmith’s home”).

After successfully completing my PGCert, I become a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. HEA’s mission is to support the sector in providing the best possible learning experience for all students. The HEA commissions a number of reports that they then make available in their website (see resources page). Generally, these are of a very high quality, usually involving reporting on actual pedagogic experiences at UK universities. And the access is free to all (even if you are not a fellow!). From time to time I pay a visit to their site to see what’s new. For those who are looking for inspiration with a view to improve their teaching practice, this site is a good source of information.

Back to the PGCert experience. Since taking this course, I have developed an ongoing interest in learning & teaching issues. The tools learnt during the course helped me to develop an awareness regarding my own pedagogic practice. I am now much more aware of my strengths and weaknesses. And this has been valuable information as it enables me to build on my strengths and work towards improving whatever skills I am lacking. At an attitudinal level, it has also entrenched in my mind the importance of continuously attempting to improve what I do to foster student learning. Actually, I have set myself the goal of introducing a new pegagogic element in my practice every year. My confidence levels improved to the extent that I have now introduced several teaching innovations (for me) in my teaching practice. Examples include:

‘Dragon’s Den’ Experience - involves using ‘real’ tasks and real organisations to improve student learning and motivation
Use of banks of comments to improve the quantity and quality of feedback.
Use of blogs to enhance students ability to self-assess

I will come back to some of these experiences soon in separate posts.

During the PGCert I had to do a portfolio of teaching and learning, which included a supporting report. In order to illustrate the dramatic impact the course had on me, I employed an analogy to a story I had heard from an ‘old wise man’ who is a very good friend of mine. The morals of the story address three important questions: where I come from, where I am and where I might be in the future as far as my academic practice is concerned.

The story goes like this. A group of humans had been living all their lives in a cavern, which had a little hole at the top. Because it was too high and narrow, they could not see what was going on outside other than shadows. One day, after much effort, one of them manages to get to the top, leave the cavern and see the world outside. The world outside was immense, full of different people, objects and practices. A world he had never imagined. Much different from the ‘single world’ he knew from living in the cavern. Before he left, he was an ‘ignorant’ – he though he had seen everything, he though he new everything. Now, he was in awe and fascinated with what he was seeing. He was ready to explore it, ready to learn what that new world would reveal.

My journey over the past three years at BU is a voyage of enlightening in much the same way as the cavern man’s one. I have climbed the rock and left my previous world, governed by shadows. Like the cavern man’s new world, I know that the learning and teaching world is much wider and richer than the one I knew before embarking on this journey. And it is much richer than the one I know today. You start seeing endless possibilities. Like the cavern man’s new world, after you have seen it, you will no go back to the shadow. You have no other desire than wanting to explore it, seeing what other new worlds are out there. And more importantly, the discovery of a new world leads you to the conclusion that as much as you may be learning exciting new things every day, you know that it is just another 'cavern'. Thus, you just need to climb the wall again and again to discover new worlds. You then realise you still know nothing when compared to what is out there to be learned. At this stage, you’ve become a scientist. You realise you still know nothing (much gthe same as the ignorant), but you are aware of it. Hence you keep climbing walls. You keep learning. As to the ignorant, he remains in the cavern, contemplating the shadows.

Cherries for Charity

2009-05-21T20:28:00.019+01:00

I have recently returned from a one week holiday in Portugal. Among other things, I spent a few days at my uncle Necas' farm. He is a part time Cherry producer and his farm which contains hundreds of cherry trees. Since it is now cherry season, I spend the days picking (and eating!) cherries. Cherries are a great fruit, and believe me if you eat ripe ones straight from the tree, it is as sweet as honey! It is hard labour though and I am not surprised that they are so expensive to buy. Basically, it takes around 45 minutes to pick 5 kilos. And this is just picking, let alone the work (and luck!) that is required to ensure that the trees produce good quality cherries. The weather was great, sunny and a warm temperature, so besides an active day in the countryside you also get a nice sun tan...

With my uncle Necas

Boxes ready to go to the market

The buckets brought from the orchard

Cherries in the tree

My first bucket!

I brought with me a suitcase full of cherries, which I have sold to colleagues and friends: £4 per ½ kilo bag! I did this as a means to raise funds for charity. In the UK it is common for people to raise funds for the charity(ies) they support and I have taken this opportunity to do it myself. The money raised - £82 - has been donated to 3 charities:

Pebble Beach Charitable Trust – UK (£20): Trust associated to the Pebble Beach Restaurant in Barton on Sea (Hampshire). 50% of the monies raised by this charity are given to a local Hampshire and Dorset charity (currently 'help the aged'), while the other half provides computers and educational equipment to schools and youth projects in Brazil that would otherwise be unable to have access to essential technology
Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy - Leiria Branch - Portugal (£20/€22): My friend Nuno Brilhante Pedrosa just fulfilled his dream of uniting the 2 Poles of the Globe, travelling as far as possible, by bicycle and in autonomy, from the Canadian Artic to the 'Tierra del Fuego' in Argentina, cycling over 42.000 kilometres. During his journey, he raised the flag (and money!) for this charity. To celebrate his achievement and the important work of the charity, I have decided to share the money with them.
Leukaemia Research UK (£42) - the only charity in the UK dedicated exclusively to researching blood cancers and disorders including leukaemia, Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas, and myeloma. One of my best friends has recently been diagnosed with early stages of leukaemia, and the 3 year son of a colleague's best friend is also undergoing chemotherapy, hence the ‘double’ amount to this charity.

On behalf of the charities, a big thank you to all who have bought the cherries, as well my uncle Manuel Antunes Rodrigues (aka Necas) who kindly donated them.

III Conference “Advances in Tourism Economics”, Lisbon

2009-05-21T20:06:00.007+01:00

On the 23rd and 24th of April I travelled to Lisbon, Portugal to attend the conference “Advances in Tourism Economics”. This conference was the third under a biennial conference series on Advances in Tourism Economics (ATE). The 2009 conference was jointly organised by the Portuguese Association for Tourism Research and Development (APIDT) and the Research Centre in Tourism, Innovation and Services (CITIS) of Lusiada University in Lisbon.

The conference attracted around 120 delegates from more than 20 countries, featuring 80 paper presentations, supported by two keynote speeches. I chaired two of the parallel sessions, one on “Motivation and consumer satisfaction in tourism markets” and another on “Tourism development and emerging products”. The first session featured papers from five and the second from four countries. Both sessions run very well and included a diversified, yet high quality range of papers. Besides chairing these two sessions, I also acted as a member of the scientific committee.

The conference program included a gala dinner at the Atrio Casino Restaurant (Lisbon Casino), after which we had the chance to try our luck at the slot machines using the €5 voucher given to all delegates. Needless to say that all delegates are still academics since no one has won the jackpot!

With Dr. Álvaro Matias and Professor Manuela Sarmento, co-chairs of the conference

Visiting UNIVALI

2009-04-22T02:42:00.019+01:00

As an academic, you are never really out of your work, and my journey to Brazil was no exception. After my holidays in Rio and Bahia, I flew south to Balneário Camboriu (Santa Catarina State) to be an external examiner for an MPhil at UNIVALI. Balneariu Camboriu is one of the main resorts in South Brazil, similar to Benidorm (located around a bay and featuring high rise buildings - see photo below). The thesis was undertaken by Laira Stock and supervised by Dr. Sara Anjos. The thesis examined the logistics of the Joinville Dance Festival (Santa Catarina State). That same day, I did a guest lecture to around 150 tourism, hospitality, gastronomy and business studies students on "Gastronomy and tourism: motivation and satisfaction of European tourists in Portugal".

With the other members of the examining panel: Dr. Sara Anjos, Laira Stock (student), Dr. Josildete Oliveira and Dr. Ovidio da Silva Junior

Balneario Camboriu

The next day, I was greeted by Dr. Valdir Cechinel Filho, Pro-Vice-Chancelor (Research and Post-Graduate Studies) of UNIVALI, after which I had a brief tour around Itajai (where the main UNIVALI campus is located). Itajai is a thriving port town, which has grown significantly over the past years.

View of Itajai

Cabeçudas Beach

"Parrot Beak" Rock, near Cabeçudas Beach

Later that day, Dr. Sara Anjos (my host) took me to Parque Vila Germânica (German Town Park) in Blumenau (around 50km from Balneario Camboriu), a city that I had previously visited more than 10 years ago during my first journey to Brazil (1998). Parque Germânico is a multi-purpose venue which hosts a range of events, the main one of which is Oktoberfest, the largest of its type outside Germany (around 700.000 visitors over two weeks). Mrs Cristina, the marketing manager of the festival, showed me the modern premises and talked about the festival. I was impressed by the quality of the park, the size of the event and effort put in to its organisation, notably the concern about improving the experience of event goers every year.

German Park, with the Mrs Cristina, Oktoberfest marketing manager

German Park, with Dr. Sara Anjos and Mrs Cristina, the Oktoberfest marketing manager

With Dr. Sara Anjos at the Pattisserie Dona Hilda (Blumenau), enjoying a tea and a delicious cake

Holiday in Brazil - Easter 2009

2009-04-01T12:05:00.011+01:00

After an hectic and draining term, I went on a holiday to Brazil. For those who don’t know me that well, I love Brazil and spend most of my holidays there. I have managed to make many good friends over the past years and this time I have visited friends in Rio de Janeiro (Niteroi), Bahia (Salvador) and São Paulo. I had the chance to relax, have fun and meet new people. Here are some pictures.

In Rio Scenarium, in Lapa District in Rio de Janeiro

In Rio Scenarium with my friends Rodrigo, Paula, Ana Luiza and Claudia

Celebrating the engagement of Rodrigo and Paula. With champagne of course!!

Enjoying a delicious cocktail in Salvador

Soho Restaurant, Salvador

One of my favourite foods: Sushi (Soho Restaurant, Salvador)

Symposium - Call for Papers

2009-03-21T13:55:00.000Z

Call for Papers on

“Segmentation of the travel market”

Symposium at the International Conference on Tourism Development and Management (ICTDM 2009)

11th – 14th September 2009, Kos Island, Greece

Organised by
Dr. Miguel Moital, Senior Lecturer in Events Management, Bournemouth University, UK

SCOPE
In order to complement the regular program of the conference, this symposium aims to bring together practitioners and academics to discuss new and emerging topics related to the segmentation of the travel market. While segmentation is a relatively well established area in tourism research, there are still many challenges to overcome. This symposium will provide a key opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas regarding novel approaches to segmentation of the travel market that capitalise on technological developments, advances in consumer behaviour research and the changing face of consumer behaviour. The Symposium aims to examine the current state of segmentation perspectives and methodologies, as well as widen the study and depth of understanding of segmentation in a tourism context. This will be achieved by stimulating discussion and an exchange of ideas between professionals, academics, researchers, policy-makers, consultants, practitioners, government officials and postgraduate students from tourism, hospitality and management related fields.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit high quality papers that focus on some of the key issues and challenges of segmenting the travel market, including (but not limited to) the following themes:

Theoretical or conceptual papers that introduce new perspectives on the segmentation of the travel market
Integrative reviews (including meta-analyses) that synthesise existing literature and identify opportunities for future research
Reassessments of prior segmentation research with insightful refinements
Empirical studies testing existing and novel segmentation methodologies

Specific topic areas include (but are not limited to):

Segmentation strategies
Cross cultural and international segmentation
Historical developments
Identification and profile of emerging travel segments
Comparison of consumer trends by specific segments (e.g. slow travellers, e-tourists, adventure travellers)
Choice and evaluation of segmentation bases (e.g. psychographic, demographic, attitudinal, behavioural)
Critique and refinement of the factor-cluster approach
Combining segmentation bases
Methods of data analysis for segmentation research
Methods for assessing the internal/external validity of segments

SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION OF PAPERS
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted electronically by June 10th, 2009 to Dr. Miguel Moital (e-mail: mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk). The abstract should include title, name(s) of author(s), affiliations, postal and e-mail addresses. It must be typed using Times New Roman, 12-point font, single spacing with justified alignment. Abstracts of all papers presented at the symposium will appear in the conference’s book of abstracts and there will be an edited volume of Conference proceedings. In addition, papers presented at the symposium will be considered for a special issue of the International Journal of Tourism Policy, guest edited by the organiser of the symposium.
For further enquiries regarding conference fees, conference programme, recommended accommodation, maps/instructions, and registration forms, please visit the conference's website

Review of 2008 (4) - The II International Congress of Tourism – Leiria and West (Portugal)

2009-03-20T22:25:00.003Z

In November I travelled to Portugal to attend the II International Congress of Tourism – Leiria and West, hosted by the School of Tourism and Sea Technology, Leiria Polytechnic Institute, Peniche. The conference attracted more than 100 delegates, including Portuguese academics and tourism students. The conference featured 20 paper presentations, supported by several keynote speeches. I presented a paper, co-authored with Teresa Robinson (colleague at Bournemouth University) and Inga Achterkamp (undergraduate student at Bournemouth University), entitled "Germany’s Image as a Holiday Destination: An Investigation into the Perceptions of British Visitors and non-Visitors". The paper, which was based on Inga’s undergraduate dissertation, was very well received, to the extent that it was awarded second best paper of the congress. The paper has now been submitted to a Brazilian tourism journal (Turismo em Análise) and we are waiting for the editor's decision.

Review of 2008 (3) - Presov, Slovakia

2009-03-20T22:00:00.008Z

In October I travelled to Presov, Slovakia, to deliver a keynote speech at the 8th International Conference of Partner Institutions, La Fondation pour la Formation Hôtelière, Nestle Pro Gastronomia and Hotel Academy. The Conference puts together 18 European educational institutions in the field of hospitality and tourism to share experiences in teaching and research as well as to stimulate mutual activities. My presentation focused on gastronomy and tourism, presenting a summary of the results of the research on European tourists’ motivation to consume, and satisfaction with the consumption of, Portuguese gastronomy. This study has been carried out together with Dr. Antónia Correia (Algarve University) and Carlos Ferreria da Costa (Aveiro University).
The social programme included a visit to the local wine museum and a gala dinner at a private club, which was prepared and served by the students and staff of the local hotel school.

Visiting the wine museum

With Dr. Iordanka Alexieva, Chair of the Conference

Central Square in Presov, with the beautiful cathedral behind

Review of 2008 (2) - EIGTUR and more

2009-03-16T00:08:00.003Z

In March 2008 I attended the First International Meeting on Tourism Management – EIGTUR 2008, hosted at Parque Metalúrgico in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil, by NUPETUR, the tourism research centre of Federal Univerisity of Ouro Preto. The conference attracted more than 100 delegates, mainly from Brazil but also from other South American countries including Argentina and Uruguay, as well as delegates from Europe, Africa and North America. The conference featured a diverse range of paper presentations, supported by a series of high profile keynote speakers and round tables addressing contemporary issues in the tourism industry.

In addition to delivering a number of presentations, I was a member of the scientific committee. I presented two referred papers: one on the determinants of the intention to purchase leisure travel over the Internet and another on the determinants of the intention to adopt mobile electronic tourist guides. I have also delivered two other presentations as keynote speaker. The first one focused on a model that I have developed (together with Antónia Correia from Algarve University, Portugal) to study the prestige motivation in tourism (see post below). The second presentation covered the legacy of mega-events. These topics were presented in sessions were renowned international academics also presented their topics, including Larry Dwyer (Australia), Brent Ritchie (Canada) and Carlos Costa (Portugal). The conference was an excellent opportunity to network and meet fellow tourism academics (mainly Brazilian).

Besides attending the conference and develop contacts with Brazilian academics, this journey to Brazil had two other purposes. One of them was to raise the profile of Bournemouth University by delivering guest lectures at Brazilian Universities. Three guest lecturers took place: São Paulo University (undergraduate students & lecturers), Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (under & post-graduate students and academics) and UNIFACS - Salvador University (undergraduate students & academics).

The other purpose was to collect primary data about the carnival experience. I have participated in two carnivals (Carnabeirão and Micareta de Feira) and collected data through observation and interaction with event participants. Email contacts were also obtained and online interviews with event attendants will take place in the near future.

Review of 2008 (1) - ANPTUR

2009-02-24T17:57:00.006Z

Nothing much relevant is happening at the moment, other than teaching, (lots of) marking and writing up a couple of papers for conferences that are coming up later in the year. Hopefully, these will then result in submissions to academic journals. Therefore, over the next few weeks I will be posting about my main work last year.

In August I travelled to Brazil to be the international keynote speaker at the V Annual Conference of the Brazilian Association of Tourism Researchers (ANPTUR), which was hosted by UNA University Centre, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The conference attracted more than 200 delegates, all tourism students and academics from Brazilian universities and research centers. The conference featured a diverse range of paper presentations, supported by three keynote speeches (including mine). My presentation focused on the impacts of mega-events and how the tourism industry can leverage the hosting of such events. I used EXPO’98 as the case study, following a research undertaken in 2002 with my colleagues at BU Professor Roger Vaughan and Dr. Jonathan Edwards. In addition to this presentation, I was also invited to co-chair one of the sessions on tourism marketing, which enable me to have a better understanding of what fellow Brazilian academic research.

The conference was an excellent opportunity to network and further develop contacts with Brazilian tourism academics. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was also a good opportunity to enhance my understanding of the Brazilian tourism education system, both at graduate and post-graduate level: size, key players and sources of funding. One of the consequences of my attendance of the conference was the invitation to become a member of the editorial board of two of the main Brazilian tourism journals: ‘Cultura e Turismo’ and ‘Visão e Ação’.

(Photo: with Professor Miriam Rejowski, President of ANPTUR)

Publication of a book chapter

2009-02-13T01:30:00.004Z

Today I have received a copy of the book Handbook of Tourist Behaviour: Theory & Practice, edited by Metin Kozak and Alain Decrop and published by Roudledge, where I have published a chapter entitled “The antecedents and consequences of prestige motivation in tourism: an expectancy-value motivation” (co-authored with Antónia Correia).

Choosing, buying and consuming tourism/travel products and services includes a range of psycho-social processes and a number of personal and environmental influences that researchers and managers should take into account. This book provides an overview of such processes and influences and explains the basic concepts and theories that underlie tourist decision-making and behavior.

We know quite a lot about what motivates tourists, but most studies focus on motivation as a whole (i.e. what are the most important motives). The number of studies devoted to the systematic examination of specific motives, such as prestige, is rather limited and an integrative model is lacking. Therefore this chapter aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on tourist motivation (1) by reviewing existing research in the field of the prestige motivation and (2) by developing an analytical model of prestige tourism motivation. This model is supported by current knowledge on prestige consumption, both within and outside the tourism literature, resulting in a detailed understanding of the motivation and expectation formation process. A number of research opportunities in the field of prestige tourism motivation are also identified.

Publication of a refereed paper

2009-02-06T19:22:00.010Z

Today I received the final version of the pdf of a paper accepted for the International Journal of Tourism Policy (Vol 2, Nº 1/2). The title of the paper is "Multidimensional segmentation of gastronomic tourists based on motivation and satisfaction" and is co-authored with Antónia Correia (Algarve University), Carlos Ferreira da Costa (Masters Student at University of Aveiro) and Nuno Oliveira (PhD Student at the London Business School).

This paper evaluates whether motivation and satisfaction can be used as segmentation variables in gastronomy tourism. Based on a stratified random sample, the respondents were asked to rank the attributes when selecting a restaurant offering Portuguese gastronomy (motivation), as well as, their evaluation of those attributes (satisfaction). Factor analysis, categorical principal component analysis and non-hierarchical cluster analysis are employed to identify distinct groups of tourists. The findings point out three market segments which suggest that motivation is a much more powerful variable for segmenting gastronomic tourists than satisfaction. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for tourism policy and management.

I am particularly pleased with my involvement in the publication of this paper as the feedback from reviewers was very positive. One of the reviewers did not ask for any changes to be made and added "I would like to congratulate author(s) for their efforts and patience to come up with such an over-standard and well-designed paper". Certainly a comment to be proud of.

This is the second paper published from the gastronomy tourism study. The first published paper was entitled "The determinants of gastronomic tourists’ satisfaction: a second-order factor analysis", Journal of Foodservice, 19, 164-176. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the presence of a single second-order factor by developing and empirically validating a second-order factor analysis model for measuring satisfaction of gastronomic tourists in Portugal. Among the three first-order factors, ‘gastronomy’ was the most important determinant of tourist satisfaction, followed by ‘price and quality’ and ‘atmosphere’.

Presentation of the Study - Profile of the Portuguese Tourist in the Algarve

2009-02-06T18:39:00.007Z

On Wednesday, 22nd January I travelled to Portugal to attend the public presentation of a study that I have been involved in. The study looked at the profile of the Portuguese Tourist in the Algarve. It was commissioned by the Algarve Tourism Board to the Faculty of Economics, Algarve University. Dr. Antónia Correia, with whom I team up frequently, is the lead coordinator of the study.
The study involved surveying nearly 3000 Portuguese tourists in the Algarve and was undertaken in three different seasons: Easter, Summer and New Years Eve (our interviewers finished data collection by 9.30pm on the 31st December!).
The session took place during the Lisbon Travel Exhibition (21-25 January). Although the room had only 130 capacity, there were around 150 attendees. The attendees' reaction was very positive and we are encouraged by their feedback.
The final report should be ready in March and we are now planning to write a few papers out of this research. The Algarve Tourism Board has published the preliminary results (an executive summary and powerpoint presentation, both in Portuguese) and you can find them here.
I will keep you posted of any developments

Welcome

2009-02-06T18:37:00.003Z

Welcome to my Blog!

I will try to update it as frequently as possible with news about me: what I do, what I publish and where I travel to.

If you have any comments that you rather prefer to send me directly, my emails are mmoital@hotmail.com and mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk

Miguel