Social media training for School of Tourism Academics

I am participating in a training session aimed to helping academics make better use of social media as I write this post. The workshop has just started by exploring why social media are important and why action is needed.

16.30 - John Fotis, a PhD student, explained that social media are here to stay and all kinds of people (not only young) are using them. He continued by identifying the various types of social media> social networking sites (e.g. facebook, linked in), blogs (travelblog, travelpod), microblogs (e.g. twitter), Wikis (e.g. wikipedia, wikitravel), content comunity sites (e.g. picasa, flickr, slideshare), consumer review sites (e.g. tripadvisor), internet forums (e.g. lonely planet) and location-based social media (e.g. foursquare). John has also highlighted some key numbers: 1 in 3 upload content on the internet (UK), flickr contains 5bn photos. Academics are among the most active in social media: 1.5m academics, 45m abstracts, 10+ million pdf/free texts.

16.50 - Just finished my brief contribution to this workshop. I emphasised the 'war of visibility' that academics and institutions face given the number of users & content being generated. Social media is a good way to establish a presence in the web, and more specifically among specific social groups. It allows you to come earlier in search engines, and maintain 'non-invasive' communication with my 'publics'. I explained that I use blogs, academic, facebook and linked in because that's what suits me.

17.10 - One colleague asked whether using social media has a good return on investment... Dimitrios Buhalis answered that using social media need not to take too much time. I added that many times I simply post a link to a paper (2 minutes), or write a report for the university on the conference I attended, which I 'recycle' and post on my blog.

Dimitrios emphasised the six tips for social media success:

1. start with the right strategy

2. know your objectives

3. deliver relevant content

4. develop meaningful relationships

5. integrate into your marketing mix

6. measure what matters

17.30 - As the purpose was to instill action, the workshop is continuing by covering each of the steps academics should undertake:

1) establish profile: blog, academic, facebook, youtube, linkedin, twitter

2) create content: publications, courses, conferences, research interests, achievements, projects, community contributions.

3) publicise through different channels: create networks of academics (you advertise each others work), use media selectively (e.g. twitter is about 'now', blogs are picked up by search engines and are a good planform for ensuring its content is accessible for a long time)

4) engage in conversations.

The practical side of the workshop involved exploring how social media works. For this purpose, Dimitrios just posted about an IFITT event in a number of pages on facebook. In a few minutes, it was tweeted, facebook friends read about it and liked it. Some shared it with their friends. Social media played its role again.

Award of a Santander Research Grant

In January I received the good news that I was awarded a Santander Research Grant. The £5000 grant will support my research project on "The internationalisation of the Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events (THE) research: Barriers and opportunities to publishing in international (English language) journals". As part of the project, I will travel to Brazil to collect data in April and in July. In the April trip, the plan is to visit the following universities:

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2 & 3 April - Univ. Federal de Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais)

9 & 10 April - Univ. Federal Fluminente (Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro)

11 & 12 April - Univ. Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (Natal, Rio Grande do Norte)

16, 17 & 18 April - Univ. de São Paulo & Univ. Anhembi Morumbi (São Paulo)

19 & 20 April - UNIVALI - Univ. do Vale do Itajai (Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina)

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In addition to interviewing tourism researchers, I will also be delivering guest lectures at some of these universities. As you can see, a pretty busy schedule!

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Below you can find more information about the research project: rationale, aim + objectives and methods.

"The internationalisation of the Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events research: Barriers and opportunities to publishing in international (English language) journals"

The economic growth of the past 15 years in Brazil has had a profound impact on the country’s tourism industry, further establishing tourism as an important economic activity. While Brazil attracted only just over five million international tourists in 2010, (Ministério do Turismo do Brazil 2011), the country has a substantial tourism industry which is driven by a buoyant domestic market. The Tourism Ministry estimates that in 2009 there were 175 million domestic trips (Ministério do Turismo do Brazil 2010). Economic growth and the strengths of the Brazilian Real are also having a substantial positive effect on the Brazilian outbound market, with 6.2 million outbound trips being recorded in 2010 (VisitBritain 2012).

As the tourist industry matures, so does the need to develop a more in-depth understanding of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the tourism phenomenon. The substantial growth of the tourism sector created the need for more trained professionals. Initially, this growth was supported by an increase in tourism education provision by private universities. However, with the ascension of a labour President in 2002, which resulted in more sustained funding for public universities, the past decade as witnessed an unprecedented growth in tourism education provision by public universities, whether at state of federal level. The net result is greater focus on tourism research within the Brazilian academia, reflected both in the growing number of active researchers and the number of articles they produce. Much of this production is directed to the growing number of Brazilian tourism journals. A small, but growing part of this research production has been published in foreign journals, whether Portuguese or Spanish language journals (mainly South American, but also Spanish). Very few have been published in English language journals. The end result is that Brazilian research and researchers are little known by the International community, notably non-Portuguese/Spanish speaking researchers (Leal, 2011). In his study, Leal concluded that international tourism researchers view research produced by Brazilian tourism academics as of low quality, both in terms of theoretical underpinning/development and of methodological rigour.

The author of this research has visited many Brazilian universities since 2008, some of them regularly, and has had informal conversations with dozens tourism academics about researching and publishing. From these conversations it is clear that many Brazilian tourism academics are enthusiastic about their research and publications and many aspire to broaden their careers to an international level. This enthusiasm is also evident in the growing number of initiatives aiming at supporting the internationalisation of the Brazilian tourism research. ANPTUR, the Brazilian Association of Tourism Post-Graduate Studies and Research, has been discussing internationalisation for a number of years, with the topic regularly featuring in the programme of their annual conference. The author of this research participated in the 2010 conference, where a group of academics from Spain, Portugal, Finland and the UK shared their experiences of internationalisation. More recently, ABRATUR, the International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil, was launched with the specific purpose of advancing the internationalisation of tourism research in Brazil. The association, on which the author of this research serves a member of the management committee, is made up of both Brazilian researchers with, or aiming to develop an international career, and foreign researchers with an interest in tourism research in Brazil.

Internationalisation has recently became a ‘hot’ topic within the Brazilian tourism academia and consequently the Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events research has yet to gain any significant presence among the English language tourism research. To Leal (2011) “in order to gain some visibility in the international tourism research arena, Brazilian tourism researchers should strengthen their theoretical and methodological skills, undertake innovative research and, more importantly, make their voice heard within the dominant language [English]. Thus, researchers should produce higher quality research and papers in English”. The study of Leal (2011), and recent discussions within the ABRATUR community provide some clues as to the problems underlying, and solutions for, the lack of internationalisation of the Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events research. However, the unique research and educational context in which Brazilian tourism researchers operate suggests that a more in-depth analysis is required. Therefore the aim of this research is to examine the barriers and opportunities to, and solutions for the internationalisation of Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events (THE) research. This will be achieved through the following objectives:

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1) To examine the barriers and opportunities to publishing in international (English language) tourism, hospitality and events journals
2) To investigate possible solutions to the barriers identified
3) Design a research skills training plan that could contribute to promote the internationalisation of the Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events research

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METHODS

Given the current state of Brazilian tourism, hospitality and events research (mainly national publications, or internationally in Portuguese or Spanish language publications), it can be argued that, in the eyes of Brazilian tourism researchers, publishing in international (English language) journals is an innovative behaviour. Thus, adoption of innovations model (Rogers, 1995) will be used as the theoretical underpinning for the research. The research will also draw on previous studies in the field of academic research and publication, organisational studies and human resources.

The research follows a qualitative/quantitative approach. Initially, face-to-face interviews with Brazilian tourism academics are used to explore the dimensions of the topic. The interviews will take place during April 2012 with researchers from various Brazilian universities. Besides the geographical spread, a mixture of academics from public and private universities and of universities with approved and under proposal tourism masters programmes will be interviewed. It is expected that a total of 20 interviews will be made.

The results of the interviews stage, together with a review of previous studies in the area, will be used as the basis for designing a questionnaire to be distributed (online) among tourism researchers affiliated to Brazilian universities. The questionnaire will focus on the main barriers, opportunities and solutions and will be promoted through email (e.g. ANPTUR and ABRATUR mailing lists; snowball sampling). Depending on the number of questionnaires collected, the data will be analysed through univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistics.

(Ray) HOLDEN PUBLISHING & RESEARCH - STILL AT IT

A few weeks ago I have posted about (Ray) Holden publishing and their conference organisation practice. Well, they are at it again (see message below). Now the conference is not about future cities but "Progressive cities". The rest of the promotional message is pretty much the same. Interestingly, there are two 'glitches' in this call. First, they forgot to update the main text to match with the heading, which still features 'future cities'; Second, they look forward to see you in May (but the conferences are in June!).

After posting the message I received a couple of emails from people who have been affected by this organisation: one from a person who also paid for the non-existent conference and did not manage to recover the moneys paid, and one from what it looked like was a supplier who had been affected by the organisation.

When I posted in January, the website was not available. They now have a brand new one. Have a look at it yourself! http://holdenresearch.co.uk/

***********************************************

Progressive 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 and refreshments during the event.

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://holdenresearch.co.uk/

Themes for the conferences include:

Progressive 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.

Holden Publishing and Research
to unsubscribe email here.

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

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.

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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)
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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

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:

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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
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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):

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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
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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!

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

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

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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!

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ITALY

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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