Centre for Tourism Research

Our distinct focus is on tourism in cities and metropolitan areas. Our interests include airport management, business tourism, city image, conference and event tourism, national capital tourism, social tourism, sports tourism, tourism and city development, and tourism policy. Members of the Group frequently give papers at conferences and seminars, publish books, and write articles for scholarly and professional journals on these themes. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, research outputs in our unit of assessment were seen as achieving at least national excellence, with 70% of an internationally recognized quality, and some world leading. Recent research has included the image and regeneration legacies of sports and events strategies in the UK; the design of purpose-built conference centres; city tourism ‘off the beaten track’ in world tourism cities; the effectiveness of tourism management in historic cities; local tourism policy; tourism in national capitals; airport management and strategy; and the potential benefits of social tourism. Our Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded international seminar series NETSTaR is examining Social Tourism and Regeneration. Members of the Group chair the ATLAS international Research Groups on City and National Capitals Tourism.

We take a broad view of research and believe that the knowledge exchange that comes from working with and advising the tourism industry and government and from writing widely read books is important. Research has been commissioned by government and the private sector in the UK and internationally, with clients including VisitBritain, London Development Agency, National Audit Office, the Office for Science and Technology, the Brookings Institution, USA, Rafael del Pino Foundation, Spain, Tourism Flanders, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), International Olympic Committee, and national tourism organizations in the Netherlands and Poland. The essential contribution that research activity makes to our Undergraduate and Masters programmes was praised by the QAA in awarding us the highest possible score for the excellence of our programmes.

Full details of publications and research can be found on individual staff pages.

We have a thriving community of PhD students and offer supervision to suitably qualified applicants whose topics engage with our research interests.