The importance of tourism to Scotland, the criticality of the hotel sector to its growth and the link between service quality and business profitability provide the rationale for this study. Although ...service quality in the hotel industry has been well researched, there is little comparative research across the Scottish hotel sector on service quality aspects. This study examines service quality across small, medium and large hotels in Scotland to establish management and customers’ current perceptions of service quality performance. Empirical findings indicate service is being lost by the focus of the Scottish QA scheme on tangibles and there are major inconsistencies in service quality performance across the sector. The implications of the findings and avenues for future research are delineated in the study.
Festival and Events Management: an international perspective is a unique text looking at the central role of events management in the cultural, tourism and arts industries. With international ...contributions from industry and academia, the text looks at the following: * Events & cultural environments * Managing the arts & leisure experience * Marketing, policies and strategies of art and leisure management Chapters include exercises, and additional teaching materials and solutions to questions are provided as part of an accompanying online resource.
"For all its global focus and background, this is a British management textbook at its best. It has been well cared for by its team of editors and deserves a wide readership among both students and practitioners in the field... this book will permit students to pick up specialist knowledge and insight before starting their career, and will prove both useful and beneficial." -Dr Hans-Christian Andersen, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Tourism, Northumbria University, UK
Foreword by Peter Irvine, Director of Unique Events, Edinburgh Section one - Festivals, events and the cultural experience: Arts, leisure & cultural concepts (Ali-Knight, Robertson); An overview of events management (Jones, Morgan, Salem); Festivals, events & the destination (Derret); Section two - Managing the arts, culture and leisure experience: Event design and management (James and Brown); Visitor management for festival and events (Yeoman, Robertson, McMahon-Beattie); Service quality and managing your people (Drummond and Anderson); The implications and process of using IT within events organisations (Knox) Section three - Marketing, revenue and retail operations: Events and detination dynamic (Robertson, Wardrop); Marketing information for the events industry (Wood); Merchandising and Retail (Doyle); Festival and events catering operations (Fields, Stansbie); Principles and applications in ticketing and reservations management (Beaven, Laws) Section four - Policies and strategies of art and leisure event management; Politics, public policy and the destination (Hall, Rusher); Events management in the context of New Zealand's art, leisure and cultural sectors (Harrison, McDonald); The economics and evaluation of festival and events (Carlsen); A strategic approach for the use of sponsorship in the events industry (Masterman); The behavioural aspects of financial management (Raj); Risk and decision making in event management (Laybourn) Section five - Case studies and contemporary issues of arts and leisure festivals and events: Social and environmental impacts - attitudes of visitors and residents to the impacts of the 2001 Sidmouth International Festival (Mason, Beaumont-Kerridge); Wine tourism events (Novelli); Edinburgh's winter festivals (Wardrop, Robertson); Sponsorship, funding and strategic function - Carling festival and V-festival (Raj, Walters); The Anglesey Sea symposium (Matthews); A critical examination of Sydney's 2000 Olympic Games (Waitt); Index
Festival and Events Management: an international perspective is a unique text looking at the central role of events management in the cultural, tourism and arts industries. With international ...contributions from industry and academia, the text looks at the following: * Events & cultural environments * Managing the arts & leisure experience * Marketing, policies and strategies of art and leisure management Chapters include exercises, and additional teaching materials and solutions to questions are provided as part of an accompanying online resource.
Among the many different types of heritage activities, railways have been drawing interest from researchers over recent years with the focus ranging from volunteering to sustainability. This paper ...considers the value of Action Research (AR) to the wider field of leisure through the prism of Serious Leisure (Stebbins, R. A. 1992. Amateurs, professionals and serious leisure. McGill-Queen's University Press) participants in the heritage railway sector. Using AR methodology, it discusses the importance of local community engagement and the dedication of leisure time in providing a range of benefits to local heritage sites. The focus of the research is on the engagement between the Caledonian Railway and the local community in Brechin, Scotland. The railway is a non-profit organisation, with funds being reinvested into restoration and preservation. In this sense the participation and effort of the community is essential for the survival of the heritage site and activity. The use of AR as the methodological approach enabled this project to follow a recurring spiral process of planning, acting, observing (or evaluating), and learning. The AR contributed to re-think the development of the railway's activities as a transformational Serious Leisure experience to locals and recommended focusing on fostering social cohesiveness with stronger links with schools and other community groups.
This research reviews the concept of volunteering in relation to learning and workplace experience in the vocational field of Tourism and Event Management, a relative newcomer to the university ...sector. It examines the ways in which volunteering is perceived and practised and evaluates its connections with a range of different communities - the academy, the case study institution and wider society. The study considers the potential for learning through volunteering practice to enhance the student experience, while creating and strengthening links across different environments. The local setting for the research is a modem university that has grown rapidly, still adapting to substantial internal changes against a dynamic external background. The literature illustrates that narrow definitions can restrict practices and sometimes prevent learning from crossing existing boundaries. It introduces new ways of viewing volunteering that move the activity into new places, with the potential to transform the student learning experience. Primary data is gathered from undergraduate students on Tourism and Event Management degrees and a range of academic and support staff across the university. Artefacts are used to draw on their volunteering experiences and explore the connections with learning in different environments. Issues around learning as belonging, doing, as experience and becoming are explored in the volunteer workplace and the university, using an established social practice framework. The findings indicate that change is instrumental in learning, creating new opportunities and presenting challenges at the same time. In this case study, barriers to learning are often the unintentional consequences of agentic and structural practices, preventing engagement between different communities, restricting opportunities to transform learning by engaging more with volunteering in the workplace. Changes in identity, pedagogy and structure emerge as key factors for student and staff learning. Reflection on these aspects is recommended to inform future design of the Tourism and Event Management curriculum, where learning can be co-produced in the university and the workplace through volunteering, with the potential to result in positive change for a range of communities of practice.
Can you remember the last time you received good service at a festival or event? What was it about that occasion that set it apart from other events or festivals that you have attended? The level of ...quality service received relates to the enjoyment of the experience and when an organization delivers good service quality it can reap many benefits from increased profits to satisfied internal and external customers.
