Tag Archives: School of Tourism

BU Team wins national enterprise competition

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A team from Bournemouth University has won a national competition that encourages student teams to promote a good cause.

The BU team – made up of students from across the different academic schools – won the Rise To Enterprise Challenge, with their campaign called Thanks To Mothers.

The campaign aimed to provide simple ways for people to express gratitude to their mothers, and they ran a social media campaign alongside events at the BU campus.

They also helped celebrate Mother’s Day by handing out flowers to mums in the local community.

The BU team was made up of Aleksandrs Pereverzevs and Mark Trubetskoy from the Media School, Jana Sirica from the School of Tourism, and Lauren England and Glebs Kiselovs from The Business School.

They worked together in a number of roles – including Marketing, Sponsorship, Sales and Research – and were required to source a mentor and raise sponsorship in order to ultimately raise awareness for their campaign.

The challenge enables students to gain hands on work experience in a business environment which not only helps within the community, but looks great on the CV.

More than 2,100 people said thanks to their mothers through the team’s website over the course of the campaign.

As well as the group winning the enterprise challenge overall, Glebs Kiselovs also won an individual award for his lead role in gaining sponsorship.

Find out more about the Thanks to Mothers campaign

Global hotel chain staff at BU for professional development course

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Staff from a global hotel chain have travelled from around the world to undertake a professional development course at Bournemouth University.

Around 30 managers from Corinthia Hotels International have joined the university to undertake the Certificate in Higher Education (CHE) in Business and Hospitality Management.

The course is part of a programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities offered by BU, and is the equivalent of the first year of an Undergraduate degree.

Franco Valletta, Chief Officer for Organisation, Development and Human Resources at Corinthia Hotels, said: “I wanted to work with the best in the UK, and I knew Bournemouth University was one of them. We have lots of students from BU coming to work as interns at our London hotel, and they do fantastically well.”

He added: “I specifically wanted to create a programme that has that mixture of academic and life skills. We are hoping it will help them when it comes to problem-solving and decision-making.

“We are among the best in the world, and we want to make our staff even better and help them develop leadership behaviours and styles.”

The course will be delivered over 14 months and the Corinthia Hotels staff will cover topics including hospitality marketing, financial reporting and how to recruit the right candidates for jobs.

They will spend at least five days on the Bournemouth University campus per unit and will also have access to resources and lecturers through online e-learning facilities.

Corinthia Hotels International was founded in Malta and now has hotels in locations including Prague, St Petersburg, Lisbon and Budapest, as well as a hotel in central London.

Keith Hayman, Head of Continuing Professional Development in BU’s School of Tourism, said: “Five star hotel operators like Corinthia Hotels International recognise the need to develop their people so that they can exploit the many opportunities within the international hotel sector.

“Bournemouth University degree level personal development gives Corinthia the advantage over competitors by ensuring the organisation has the best people ready and able to accept the challenges of company growth.

“CPD study at Bournemouth University is tailored to accommodate the specific needs, requirements and objectives of every client.”

Find out more about CPD opportunities at BU

Tourism Authority of Thailand partnership with BU

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A delegation from the Tourism Authority of Thailand came to Bournemouth University on 12 March to discuss developing a partnership with our School of Tourism.

The Thai party included Manit Boonchim, the Executive Director of the Planning Department.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis from the School of Tourism said: “This is a great opportunity for cooperation between Bournemouth University and the Tourism Authority of Thailand. We look forward to the benefits this will bring to our students and academics as we develop this partnership in the future.”

Bournemouth University academics will deliver courses, seminars and conference based on our world-leading research from the School of Tourism. Our students will also have the opportunity to travel to Thailand to work on placements, gaining valuable experience and knowledge that will help boost their careers.

The visit to BU finished with a chance for the delegation of seven from the Tourism Authority to meet with students from Thailand who study at BU.

In the future students from Thailand will work on research at BU on tourism in Thailand, using their knowledge of their home country as a base.

The delegation also heard about BU’s involvement with the National Coastal Tourism Academy and there are plans that a similar academy may be set up in Thailand modelled on this.

Professor Buhalis added: “The visit was a great success and we were very flattered that The Tourism Authority of Thailand travelled to England exclusively to see BU as they recognise us as a global leader in tourism marketing and management.

“We are very pleased to be developing our links in a country known for the quality of its education system, as well as its stunning tourism attractions and friendly people. This partnership will benefit both BU and Thailand going forward.”

 

 

 

Dr Philip Alford comments on keyword advertising for BBC article

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Dr Philip Alford, director of the Digital Hub at Bournemouth University, spoke about whether keyword advertising on search engines is effective in an article on the BBC Technology website.

Companies can pay to have keyword advertising, which means that their website appears more prominently when a person searches for a particular term related to them.

But a recent eBay study found that most people who visited their site as a result of keyword advertising would have done so anyway.

Dr Alford, a senior lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Marketing at BU, said that eBay was an established brand and that keyword advertising may be more useful for smaller companies.

“eBay has become a household brand name, they already have a highly engaged user base,” said Dr Alford, adding that many people would search for the website directly.

“With Google ad words, particularly for smaller organisations, it can make a lot of sense because for some of them, their websites aren’t at a stage yet where they have been sufficiently indexed by Google, so they struggle to come up in natural searches for terms.”

You can read the full article here

Sean Beer returns to talk horsemeat on BBC Radio Solent

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Sean Beer, Senior Lecturer within the School of Tourism, specialising in the food supply chain, was invited back on to Steve Harris’ Drive show on BBC Radio Solent to talk about the worsening horsemeat scandal.

During Sean’s second appearance on the show he discussed the complicated nature of our food supply chain and how easy it was for the chain to be corrupted. He said, “You are dealing with a very complicated, long supply which is a bit like a sausage with lots of holes in it, and if you put pressure on that sausage the meat just squeezes out of all the holes. We have put a lot of financial pressure on this supply chain and sometimes we get what we pay for!”

When asked if he was surprised that the scandal was continuing he said, “I am not surprised at all. I was a bit surprised that it was horse that came to the fore. It could have been contamination with chicken, lamb or halal slaughtered meat that wasn’t halal or it could even have been a pesticide.”

As the discussion concluded, Sean finished by saying, “It’s not really about horse as many people eat horse around the world. What it is about is trust and the fact that what it says on the label is what we should expect.”