Travel, Tourism and Events Students prepare for their field activity planned for January 2010. Taken as an optional final year module, students will participate in a week of tailor-made content during this practical field trip.
In 2007, the winter-sun destination of Gambia became the setting of a responsible tourism laboratory for a group of final year travel, tourism and events students studying a new field-based module.
In its third edition, this year the experience will involve a group of 16 students from SSM and 10 Gambian participants and two member of SSM staff assisted by a number of Gambian partners.
The driving force behind the module is Dr Marina Novelli (Principal Lecturer in Tourism Development and management). Her determination to help students understand the importance of responsible tourism by putting theory into practice, led her to run her module Destination Niche Tourism in the Gambia, where collaboration with local partners provide a week of tailor-made content and applied learning of niche tourism development and management issues, business planning and cross-cultural team collaboration between students studying in the UK and Gambian participants.
The final stage of the training will consist in the presentation of niche tourism business initiatives by the students’ groups. The module will benefit from contributions from invited speakers such as Adama Bha (Concern Universal), who recently created the fair trade horticultural marketing company, Gambia is Good (GiG), with funding from the UK Department for International Development. GiG supplies fresh Gambian produce to local hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. It provides tangible economic and social benefits to poor rural Gambian communities and responds to a clear market opportunity, namely the supply of good quality produce to the tourist sector and builds on existing production-based initiatives at the farmer level.
Geri and Maurice Mitchell from Sandele Bay Eco Retreat will share their experience in building a community based business, which has proved to be a challenging but rewarding experience, which has recently won the Guardian and Observer Ethical Travel Award 2009.
While the in-class activities will place at the Safari Garden Hotel in Fajara, which is chosen specifically because of its commitment and international awards for responsible tourism practices, local visits will enrich the students’ experience.
Marina tells us “This experience has proved to be a resourceful way of conducting fieldtrips with a deeper purpose and an eye opening and engaging experience for our students. Students engage in what I define peers’ capacity building, cross-cultural collaboration and sustainable tourism development in a way that they will remember for the rest of their life”.
This practical module is a final year option for students studying International Tourism Management BA (Hons), International Travel Management BA (Hons), Travel and Tourism Marketing BA (Hons) and International Events Management BA (Hons).
School of Service Management News
12th November 2009
