New PhD students to 'transform' tourism

26 February 2010

BU is now accepting applications from candidates for the first PhD studentships available through the John Kent Institute in Tourism.

The John Kent Institute is named for one of the world's leading tourism entrepreneurs, John Kent, whose substantial contribution to the University will make it possible for postgraduate researchers from around the world to take up a number of PhD studentships at BU over the next three years.

The fully-funded PhD studentships will be awarded between 2010 and 2012 and will strengthen the University's global reputation as a leading provider of tourism research and education.

BU's School of Services Management, respected globally as a centre of excellence for tourism and study research, will support the successful applicants for the new John Kent PhD studentships. The School boasts the largest cohort of postgraduate tourism students in the UK and is home to the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, one of the leading research centres of its kind in the world.

The studentships are offered in a range of industry-relevant topics to help improve the quality of the global tourism industry – from the use of technology and multi-media elements in tourism marketing to aspects of consumer loyalty and satisfaction. The proposed topics also encompass the industry's response to international issues such as security in the face of terrorism and the response to the current economic climate.

The confirmed subject titles for the John Kent PhD studentships are:

Empirical Estimation of Customer Loyalty in Tourism
Overlapping consumer motivations: the case of nature-based tourism
An ethnographic study of the socio-cultural impacts of surf tourism on the indigenous surfing community
Consumers as producers: the dimensions of consumer-to-consumer co-creation in the event experience
Virtual Holiday Resort Immersive Experiences
3D Mobile, Context-Aware Tourism City Applications: Technology challenges and user requirements
Innovative service marketing delivery using social media networking: Learning from review websites in the tourism/hospitality industry
Catering for the tourist satisfaction and well-being
Tourists, terrorism and the media

Details of the new studentships are now available online on our John Kent Institute in Tourism pages.

The deadline for applications is 30 April 2010.