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September 2nd, 2010
Last month UNESCO inscribed another 21 sites onto the World Heritage List, including the amazing observatory of Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the canals of central Amsterdam and the At Turaif District in ad-Dir’iyah, Saudi Arabia.
I know all of these sites, having holidayed in both Delhi and Amsterdam and having visited ad-Dir’iyah, the capital of the first Saudi state, many times during the time I was based in Riyadh working alongside the Supreme Commission for Tourism (now the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities – SCTA). The architecture of Jantar Mantar is certainly stunning – almost abstract in places and looking like a contemporary skatepark. The site was a lunar and celestial observatory and is testament to the scientific knowledge and spirit of inquiry of the time. Amsterdam’s canals are an iconic aspect of the city’s urban form and reflect the ingenuity of the town’s inhabitants in terms of managing flood control as well as facilitating trade. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
September 1st, 2010
Is this your year to start your professional development with ICRT? We have few places for part time distance learning study, for people already working in the tourism industry or aiming to transfer their skills to this sector. 
This is the time of year to stock take and consider how you will best develop yourself to remain competitive. Our masters acts as a coaching process to develop knowledge, networks and opportunities in this industry. Half of our students work and live outside the UK, attending only some of the intensive weekend blocks and studying online while using our distance learning packs.
Email x.font@leedsmet.ac.uk for more details or call +44 113 8125609 on whether htis is the right course for you and how to spread the fees and workload.
Posted in MSc responsible tourism management | 1 Comment »
August 17th, 2010
 Credit: BeeCraft A Responsible Tourism product can be very responsible towards the environment and the local community but if it holds access barriers, People with Limited Mobility will be restrained from enjoying it. The Responsible Tourism Declaration of Cape Town explicitly requires Responsible Tourism to be accessible for people with disabilities. The overlap between Responsible Tourism and Accessible Tourism is clear.
An accessible destination means accessibility for tourists but also for locals. Accessible tourism really has the capacity to produce “better places for people to live in and for people to visit”.
However, tourism products and services are, in general, far of being prepared to accommodate the needs of this group of people. This means no tourism access for many. This creates frustration among People with Limited Mobility and it poses a question that lies
beyond not meeting a market segment; it is a question of injustice that as a society we should face and resole.
Carlos Buj, one of our Msc students is focusing his Professional Report on the travel needs of People with Limited Mobility under the supervision of Dr. Simon Woodward. You can contribute to the research by responding to this brief questionnaire. It’s anonymous and if you wish you will get a copy of the final report. You just need to be a PwLM or a usual companion. Otherwise you can contribute by spreading the questionnaire to your contacts.
Tags: accessible tourism, Carlos Buj, People with Limited Mobility
Posted in ICRT projects | No Comments »
July 21st, 2010
Andreas has just submitted a chapter for the ITB publication “Trends and Issues in Global Tourism 2011”. The chapter seeks to explore the relationship between hotels and climate change. The role of hotels in contributing to climate change, and the impacts they face as a result of climate change are discussed. The paper then explores to what extent the accommodation sector is engaging in behaviour to reduce its contribution to climate change and why it is in its own self-interest to do so.
Subsequent to these discussions, examples are provided of how different hotels and hotel chains are responding to the challenges of climate change focusing at first on mitigation and then adaptation. A brief discussion of sustainable supply chain management is also provided given its importance in tackling the causes of climate change. The examples serve to illustrate the range of activities currently being undertaken in the sector. The publication resulted from Andreas’ role as moderator for a panel discussion at ITB this year on hospitality and climate change. If anyone has any examples of adaptation in the hospitality industry please email these to Andreas a.walmsley@leedsmet.ac.uk as he is keen to explore this issue further.
Posted in Conferences | No Comments »
July 15th, 2010
Back in April this year Lucy McCombes spoke at the International Association for Impact Assessment’s (IAIA) 30th Annual Conference in Geneva which focused on the role of impact assessment methods in “Transitioning to the Green Economy”. The Green Economy referring to an international initiative led by UNEP aimed at presenting a powerful economic case for investing in the environment. It advocates for taking into account the links between economy, society and the environment for the transformation of production processes, production and consumption patterns. See the following link for more details: www.unep.org/greeneconomy and www.iaia.org
Lucy presented a paper on “Taking Responsibility for the Social Impacts of Tourism” and attended their training session on conducting Social Impact Assessments, alongside Yvette Evers who is currently studying with us at ICRT whilst living close to Geneva. Following this involvement Lucy has been invited by IAIA to develop their Key Citations on the “Social and Environmental Impacts of Tourism”. The purpose of the Key Citations series is to be a source of information about the different subfields of impact assessment – see http://www.iaia.org/resources-networking/key-citations.aspx to check out the existing series. Each Key Citations listing is simply a selection of readily available publications that typify the particular subfield of impact assessment. Primarily, the listings are to provide a source of readily accessible information for people wanting to learn more about that subfield. They also might be regarded as establishing the core literature of the field that should be consulted for publications and academic theses on the topic. They should include a selection of the currently available books published by commercial publishers, a selection of journal articles over the last 10 years or so that provide an overview of the field, and key official documents.
If anyone would like to suggest any literature to be included in these Key Citations please contact Lucy McCombes on l.mccombes@leedsmet.ac.uk
Posted in Conferences, ICRT projects | No Comments »
July 15th, 2010
In April Lucy McCombes was invited to represent ICRT at ATA’s 35th Annual World Congress hosted in The Gambia. She moderated the opening plenary on: “The Smiling Coast of Africa: Model of Sustainable and Responsible Tourism” with keynote speakers including: the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Minister of Forestry and Environment, Manager of Kombo Beach Hotel which has recently won a Gold Travelife Award (the first in West Africa), and Adama Bah, from The Travel Foundation and a current student at ICRT.
The four-day event addressed a myriad of topics, such as tourism growth markets, travel trends, airline access, investment opportunities, transportation and social networking tools. You can find out more about the outcome of this event on:
http://africatravelassociation.org/ata/media/documents/ATAGambiaCongressPressReleaseClosing.pdf
Posted in Conferences | No Comments »
July 8th, 2010
The Parliament will be paying more attention to the role that travel and tourism have- from airport capacity and taxation to financial protection and the domestic economy, as showcased in this month’s special supplement of The House Magazine July2010, the UK Parliament’s publication.
Articles from the new ministers in tourism and transport, the chairman of the all party parliamentary group on tourism, MPs and a former MEP, come together with the viewpoints of ABTA, Thomas Cook and TUI- and our very own Prof. Harold Goodwin.
The House is more than another magazine, its importance goes beyond who is featured- it informs the viewpoints of politicians, it’s contents speaks of signs of the things to come.
Posted in RT news | No Comments »
July 2nd, 2010
The videos from the recent ICRT responsible tourism marketing conference are now online. This event gathered 70 industry delegates to discuss the current market behaviour towards taking responsibility for more sustainable holidays, and the responses from both large industry players and the smaller businesses.
The event was useful in showing much more clearly how companies are less shy about using their RT work to engage customers, develop new products, design more sophisticated communication tools and channels. The outcome? Leaders have already moved from greenwashing to greenhushing (i.e. not talking about it) and now are starting to be more comfortable with integrating sustainability into their day to day business- including marketing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Conferences, Industry training | No Comments »
June 29th, 2010
A new EU funded project kicks off today in Leeds supporting the European Charter for Protected Areas to roll out sustainability criteria for tourism suppliers within national parks. Representatives from several European national parks, the Europarc Federation, and the Univesities of Joensuu and LeedsMet are having their first team meeting in our sunny Headingley campus.
ICRT’s role is to transfer expertise in sustainable tourism certification and to conduct an European wide survey on the competitive advantage gained by small businesses from operating and marketing sustainably, over the next 18 months. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in ICRT projects | 3 Comments »
June 23rd, 2010
Small tourism and hospitality firms need help to market and communicate how they take responsibility for sustainability, in a way that is positive and engaging to their customers. The report just published by VisitEngland and their regional tourism partners and prepared by ICRT staff Xavier Font is a practical tool to support small firms. 
www.visitengland.com/keepitreal
ICRT runs one day courses to train groups of small firms on responsible tourism marketing- Cornwall, Brecon Beacons and Powys courses in April/May were well received and we look forward to work with further national park authorities and regional tourism boards in the UK and internationally to run similar courses. A typical one day programme costs £700 plus expenses for up to 20 participants, and the programme can be found below
Marketing your green tourism business one day course
Posted in ICRT projects, RT news | No Comments »
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