First John Kent Institute in Tourism students welcomed

John Kent Institute welcomes new postgraduate researchers.

BU has welcomed the first students to be awarded fully-funded PhD studentships by its John Kent Institute in Tourism.

Four postgraduate researchers have accepted the first of 11 studentships funded by the Institute, which was established through a gift made to the University by leading tourism entrepreneur John Kent.

The students will carry out their research across a range of cutting edge, industry-relevant topics that will help improve the quality of the global tourism industry.

Throughout their studies they will be supported by academics from the University’s School of Tourism, which is a world leader in tourism research and education.

The first four researchers and their PhD subject titles are:

Nicolas Gregori: 'Innovative service marketing delivery using social media networking: Learning from review websites in the tourism/ hospitality industry'
Zornitza Yovcheva: '3D mobile, context-aware tourism city applications: technology challenges and user requirements'
Gregory Kapuscinski: 'Tourists, terrorism and the media'
Ivana Rihova: 'Consumers as producers: the dimensions of consumer-to-consumer co-creation in the event experience.'

John Kent, President of the Institute, said: “I am very happy that my vision to support Higher Education and research in the field of tourism is now a reality and we are welcoming the first four PhD students to the John Kent Institute in Tourism at BU. I expect great things from such top class scholars and am proud to be advancing their research.”

Director of the Institute, Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, said: “It is a great pleasure to recruit students of this calibre and we look forward to welcoming them in the School and working together towards creating new and innovative knowledge.

“We are grateful to John Kent for his generous support and we will ensure that the studies have both relevance and impact in both academic and applied terms.”

Speaking on behalf of the students, Ivana Rihova said: “BU has an excellent reputation for world-class tourism research and I’m very excited about the opportunity to look at events from a marketing perspective as part of my PhD. I feel very privileged to undertake a unique research project within the John Kent Institute in Tourism.”

The John Kent Institute in Tourism will be funding a further seven PhD studentships over the next two years. For information on how to apply visit: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research and for more information about John Kent Institute in Tourism visit: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/johnkent/