Brighton Research Students Annual Conference

Published 13 August 2012

The research students from the School of Service Management recently presented their work at the Mphil/PhD & Professional Doctorate Students Annual Conference hosted by the Eastbourne & Falmer Brighton Doctoral College. The aims of the conference were to share research undertaken in a wide range of disciplines, and to encourage research students to discuss their work while receiving useful feedback in a supportive environment.

First row from left to right: Rodrigo Lucena and Brian Watmough. Second row: Angela Whichman, Elena D’Cruz, Claudia Dolezal and Carla Ricaurte.

Elena D’Cruz discussed her research advances in ‘The role of wine tourism in the sustainable development, cultural preservation and economic regeneration of the Crimean region of Ukraine’.

Angela Wichmann presented her research on understanding sports event tourists in the context of the 2011 World Gymnaestrada in Lausanne. Her presentation addressed the context and relevance of this project’s aim, outlined her theoretical framework and presented some selected findings.

Michael Williams’ presentation was ‘Music events as spectacles: U2’s Union of Rock and Resistance’ which addressed the concept, process and phenomenon of music events as spectacle.

Brian Watmough’s presentation ‘How civil is civil society? Mongolian NGOs and tourism development’ examined the way in which national non-government organization (NGOs) act as intermediaries between international Development Organisations and herder communities in Mongolia.

Claudia Dolezal presented ‘Community empowerment through understanding tourism encounters’, introducing the audience to an interdisciplinary approach to using tourism and human interaction for community uplift and empowerment in less developed countries.

Carla Ricaurte focused on her framework for data analysis and some of her preliminary findings about dynamics of tourism governance in the Santa Elena Province, Ecuador, through her presentation ‘Self-organising destinations: The complex dynamics of tourism planning and policy-making’.

Rodrigo Lucena presented ‘Rainbow families on holiday: Motivations, destination choices and acceptance’, a study that aims to contribute to the understanding of rainbow family travel motivations and destination choices using an interpretivist methodology.