Winter 2012
Welcome to the winter issue of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management e-newsletter.
The School is excited by the work of Dr Kaye Walker and her team in implementing Tonga's first certified whale guide tourism training course. This course will be legislated by the Tongan government meaning all operators who work in the whale tourism industry in the country will need to undertake the course.
It is pleasing to see the grants awarded to the Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work for Indigenous tourism. Indigenous tourism is an underestimated part of the tourism industry in Australia. Congratulations to Dr Gui Lohmann and Associate Professor Dianne Dredge for their recently published text on Brazilian tourism and congratulations also to the graduating class of The Hotel School Sydney for their fundraising efforts for the Westmead Children's Hospital.
Dr Sandra Speedy
Acting Head of School of Tourism and Hospitality Management
 |
 |
 |
 |
Swimmers to have a whale of a time thanks to SCU
A Southern Cross University led team has delivered the South Pacific's first certified whale guide tourism training course in Tonga. Tonga has pioneered the humpback whale swim industry where tourists can snorkel with humpback whales and their new born calves.
To increase industry sustainability, the Tonga Whale Watch Operators Association in partnership with the Tonga Business Enterprise Centre (TBEC) approached Dr Kaye Walker, from Southern Cross University's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, to develop and coordinate what would become the Tonga Whale Guide Training Program.
Indigenous tourism to feel the music
Two Southern Cross University projects aimed at linking Indigenous music with tourism have been awarded $78,000 through a Strategic Tourism Investment Grant, announced by the federal Minister for Tourism the Honourable Martin Ferguson recently.
Academics eye Brazil
The next decade in Brazil will offer almost limitless research and partnership opportunities and more Australian academics should be eyeing opportunities in the South American economic powerhouse, according to a Southern Cross University lecturer.
Old railway lines could be tourist attractions
Old railway lines need not rot away into oblivion with new research from Southern Cross University proposing a conceptual model that could help turn disused rail infrastructure into sustainable tourism operations.
A new way to manage homelessness
Ireland has been one of the most progressive countries in the world in its efforts to eradicate homelessness. Yet despite innovative programs and millions of dollars of government and philanthropic spending, homelessness persists across the Republic.
Classes put palate to the test
The smell of wine emanating from the second level of the Gold Coast campus building seemed to suggest there was a party going on.
Students shine during fundraiser
After a glittering gala dinner at Sydney's swanky Ivy Ballroom, students of Southern Cross University's The Hotel School Sydney raised $20,000 for the Westmead Children's Hospital.
Swimmers to have a whale of a time thanks to SCU
WHALE TOURISM: Dr Kaye Walker.A Southern Cross University led team has delivered the South Pacific's first certified whale guide tourism training course in Tonga.
Tonga has pioneered the humpback whale swim industry where tourists can snorkel with humpback whales and their new born calves.
To increase industry sustainability, the Tonga Whale Watch Operators Association in partnership with the Tonga Business Enterprise Centre (TBEC) approached Southern Cross University's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Dr Kaye Walker to develop and coordinate what would become the Tonga Whale Guide Training Program.
Kaye has 20 years' marine research and tourism experience in Australia and the South Pacific and expertise in marine wildlife guiding and its research and development.
"The Tongan Government wanted to be able to say, 'All of our guides are of an international standard', so we developed a program tailored for South Pacific communities. It will be a legislated requirement in Tonga that anyone working on a whale watch or swim vessel as a guide will have to complete this training," Dr Walker said.
Dr Walker and her team delivered the program to 68 guides in April this year. The program is differentiated by its community capacity building component, facilitating an international perspective and understanding of the tourism industry and the tourists. It aimed to enhance employment and business opportunities for Tongans and, in the long term, improve the reputation of the Tongan whale tourism industry.
"To implement this, it needed to have the interests of the Tongan community at its core and consider the guide's role in community capacity building and sustainability," Dr Walker said.
The whale tourism industry is economically important to Tonga but has attracted political attention with regard to whale protection and industry management.
"This situation is amplified by limited local knowledge regarding the industry's place in the international tourism and conservation arena, which has inhibited local community capacity building. They need to have a greater understanding of the global tourism industry and how they can engage with it," Dr Walker said.
To deliver the program, she brought together a team comprising Southern Cross University Professor Betty Weiler, who has more than 20 years of tourism teaching and research experience, including guide training and accreditation; Dr Cara Miller, a whale biologist from the University of the South Pacific; and John Cvetko, the previous manager of TBEC who initiated the project and has many years experience in community development.
WHALE TOURISM: Tongan graduates of the first training course.The Tongan Government required both local and expatriate guides and owner/operators to do the training.
Dr Walker said at first the expatriates were reluctant to participate.
"There was resistance, but in fact, they got a lot out of it, and it brought industry members and local employees closer together. By the end, the operators were vying to employ the Tongans based on their training performance," she said.
The aim now is to review the Tonga Whale Guide Training Program and develop a train-the-trainer model.
"The University of the South Pacific has expressed interest in adopting and delivering the program throughout the South Pacific. It is likely the program will be modified to incorporate other types of tourism development and situations identified in the region, including community-based tourism and cultural tourism," Dr Walker said.
Dr Walker's ongoing research with Dr Weiler will evaluate the program and measure and observe the impact the new knowledge and skills of the trained guides has on the industry and broader community. It will contribute to developing sustainability indicators for assessing guide training and industry conduct.
The prospect of returning for further research is something Dr Walker relishes.
"The Tongans recognised the opportunity in this program to gain important knowledge and status, with training being delivered in a way in which they could engage," she said.
"They sang us a farewell song. Over 70 people were holding hands and crying while their beautiful Pacific voices resonated throughout the hall. It was very heartfelt. That's the value they placed on the program."
The Tonga Whale Guide Training Program was funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme, through the TBEC.
Indigenous tourism to feel the music
ON WITH THE SONG: Sam Cook, of KissMyBlakArtists, and Professor Kerry Brown, from the Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work.Two Southern Cross University projects aimed at linking Indigenous music with tourism have been awarded $78,000 through a Strategic Tourism Investment Grant, announced by the federal Minister for Tourism the Honourable Martin Ferguson recently.
The grant, awarded to the University's Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work, will study the investment potential in Indigenous experiences through two projects.
One project, called 'Songlines: Indigenous Musical Journeys', will link tourists with Indigenous groups who will teach their customs and stories through songs.
The second project will create a travelling performance space for Indigenous music and culture to tour regionally, nationally and internationally and is called 'Nomads Palace'.
Minister Ferguson congratulated the Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work for their successful application.
"This project will enable Australia to more effectively target the international market segment that is interested in world music and bring Indigenous music and culture to Australia's cities and towns," he said.
Director of the Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work Professor Kerry Brown said with Southern Cross University matching the grant from STIG, $156,000 would be spent on the projects.
"It is important to help create sustainable economies for Indigenous people and we believe these two projects could help do that," she said.
"We are happy that these projects are considered to be of national significance."
The director of KISSmyBLAKartists, Sam Cook, is a partner with the University in the projects.
"Start up support for 'Nomads Palace' comes at a critical time for this project," she said.
"As a world first, 'Nomads Palace' has already secured enquiries nationally within Australia and internationally as far afield as Uganda and Canada. 'Nomads Palace' seeks to enter the market place of the Spiegeltent, providing a carefully curated multi-artform program of Indigenous arts and cultural expressions that can remain in residence at an array of major festivals, venues and events globally.
"Honouring living cultural practice, 'Nomads Palace' has been envisioned as a green-design innovation, harnessing solar technologies and recyclable innovations so that it moves forward with a commitment to a new approach for Indigenous arts and economic development."
The Strategic Tourism Investment Grants were initiated to develop Indigenous tourism, economic development and tourism employment. Four out of 26 applications were funded.
Academics eye Brazil
TOURISM IN BRAZIL: Dr Gui Lohmann.The next decade in Brazil will offer almost limitless research and partnership opportunities and more Australian academics should be eyeing opportunities in the South American economic powerhouse, according to a Southern Cross University lecturer.
Dr Gui Lohmann, of the University's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, along with Associate Professor Dianne Dredge has just edited the first English language academic text about Brazilian tourism, called 'Tourism in Brazil: Environment, management and segments'. It is published by Routledge.
"Brazil is going through great economic change at the moment and early this year became the sixth largest economy in the world, ahead of the United Kingdom. The country has been in the spotlight for hosting a number of mega events, including Rio +20 in June 2012, World Youth Day (2013), the FIFA World Cup (2014) and the Summer Olympics (2016)," he said.
"Like Australia, Brazil is also undergoing a natural resources boom, so there are a lot of eyes on Brazil at the moment and it is the perfect time to study, particularly tourism. Traditionally English speaking tourism researchers have gone to smaller developing countries which are easier to cover and understand. The complexities and language barriers of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries have put off many academics."
Dr Lohmann, who was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, said with rare exceptions academia had typically been a closed shop in Brazil, with academics resisting collaboration with the rest of the world.
"I delivered a keynote speech at the paramount tourism conference there in 2010 about the internationalisation of academia and was roundly criticised," he said.
"There has been resistance to engage with the English written literature, a trend that is finally changing with a new generation of academics exposed to educational opportunities overseas and willing to engage with the world. Some of them are getting academic jobs overseas."
In editing the book, Dr Lohmann said he hoped to help Brazilian academics be published on the world stage and to see the international community engage with researchers in Brazil.
In the meantime, he and some colleagues have recently established the International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil (ABRATUR). It is hosted at Southern Cross University. Two other Brazilian ex-pats work at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management on topics related to tourism in Brazil. Dr Arianne Reis, a post-doctoral research fellow, studies events and sustainable tourism. Mr Flávio Valente, a research assistant and PhD candidate, is studying leadership and governance.
"Brazilians and Australians have much in common in that they are laid back and their lifestyle is similar due to climate and geography," Dr Lohmann said, who is trying to foster more research opportunities for Brazilian academics in Australia.
"In general Brazilians are very much attracted by the image of Australia as a tourist destination and the Australian universities have a good reputation in Brazil. It is about time for Australian and Brazilian academics to stop looking North and start engaging with their peers in the Southern hemisphere."
Dr Lohmann said that apart from the similarities in natural resources and a diverse flora and fauna, Australia and Brazil are continental countries with opportunities, for example, to study their internal tourism and domestic aviation policies and regulations, the latter of which is one of Dr Lohmann's expertise areas.
Old railway lines could be tourist attractions
ON THE RIGHT TRACK: Dr Arianne Reis.Old railway lines need not rot away into oblivion with new research from Southern Cross University proposing a conceptual model that could help turn disused rail infrastructure into sustainable tourism operations.
Dr Arianne Reis, along with Carla Jellum of the University of Otago, have just released their research into rail trails after it was published in the journal Tourism Planning & Development.
Dr Reis, from the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, said the research identified six characteristics rail trails have the potential to present and that are attractive to tourists, as well as three facilitators that can assist in the development of a sustainable tourism product.
The characteristics are:
- being of substantial length to encourage multi-day and multi-activity experiences;
- having level gradients, wide corridors and firm surfaces, therefore attracting different demographics;
- Having its natural and historic scenery preserved so as to provide a scenic and entertaining experience for visitors;
- Providing environmentally sustainable routes, including conservation zones and green corridors, and promoting the use of active forms of transportation and recreation along its length;
- Providing corridor links between different communities that offer hospitality services, increasing the opportunity for social and economic engagement between local communities; and
- providing an association with the heritage of the region, including the preservation and promotion of significant sites of local histories.
The relatively low development and maintenance costs associated with rail trails, the educational opportunities available due to historical significance of some railway lines and the potential for community involvement can be considered significant facilitators for the development of a strong tourism product based on rail trails.
"Not all components of our model need to be present in order for a rail trail to be considered a sustainable tourism product," Dr Reis said.
"How many of the proposed elements of the model, or which ones, are necessary or essential to create a tourism product that is of significance to the region is still to be tested. But we believe these attributes are the best candidates to explain the tourism potential of a particular rail trail based on academic and technical evidence.
"The characteristics that we have proposed can be used by planners and managers as tools to better leverage any existing or prospective rail trails in their area to make them sustainable tourist assets.
"There has been an increase in active tourism involvement in Australia but rail trails, which have been utilised in Australia for some decades, have lacked a theoretical framework that helps to better understand their management."
A new way to manage homelessness
A NEW WAY TO THINK: Dr Mary Lee Rhodes of Trinity Collge, Dublin.Ireland has been one of the most progressive countries in the world in its efforts to eradicate homelessness. Yet despite innovative programs and millions of dollars of government and philanthropic spending, homelessness persists across the Republic.
Dr Mary Lee Rhodes of Trinity College, Dublin believes that a new perspective on the problem is needed. At a recent seminar hosted by the Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work at Southern Cross University, Dr Rhodes presented a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) framework that she has used to analyse housing and homelessness in Ireland and to generate new insights and ideas.
"Ireland has been at the forefront of working against homelessness for many years. In fact, Ireland had one of the first social housing schemes in the world 130 years ago," she said.
"But the problems facing government and society are increasingly complex. There are too many agents and factors to manage effectively using traditional policy instruments and market incentives. Huge efforts and investments have been made by the public, non-profit and private sectors but the system in which they operate needs to be fundamentally redesigned. At the heart of the issue is the fact that homelessness is a failure of the service system to deliver housing for those who require shelter."
This is why Professor Rhodes's research focuses on understanding housing and homelessness as Complex Adaptive Systems. Complex Adaptive Systems are systems that have a large number of components, often called agents, that interact and adapt and learn. Examples of Complex Adaptive Systems include such diverse phenomena as the stock market, ant colonies and the human brain.
These systems evolve in unpredictable ways to survive and/or achieve their organising purpose without the 'benefit' of an over-arching director or governing body. Instead, as the individual components go about their activities and interact with each other, patterns of behaviour emerge and evolve to allow the system to survive and outperform other, more hierarchically controlled systems.
"Complex Adaptive Systems can have hundreds if not thousands of different agents with different goals working towards a jointly produced outcome," Professor Rhodes said.
"Homelessness in Ireland, and around the world, has been addressed in more or less a standard way and things have not changed, so I think a different perspective on the problem needs to be tried to make a difference.
"I am someone who fundamentally believes that no-one wants to be – and no one should be – homeless."
With estimates by the United Nations that there are more than one billion people homeless every night, trying a new way to manage an age-old problem would seem appropriate.
Classes put palate to the test
TASTES GOOD: Michelle Elliott, left, and Sara Smith, of Matra Legends, with Bill Morgan of the QCWT.The smell of wine emanating from the second level of Southern Cross University's Gold Coast campus building seemed to suggest there was a party going on.
Instead, it was serious business. Students were tasting wine as part of the Queensland College of Wine Tourism's (QCWT) Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 1 Certificate. It was one of a series QCWT events hosted by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.
About 10 students, which included tourism professionals from the Gold Coast as well as some University staff, attended the first event at the Gold Coast campus.
The WSET Certificate is recognised in 58 countries and has been around for more than 40 years. Almost 40,000 people were candidates for the course last year.
Bill Morgan, the education and training manager with QWCT, said the certificate offered hospitality staff some basic knowledge about wine.
"We find that front-of-house staff get a lot of confidence out of the course," he said.
"We also find that a lot of school leavers do the course and then they have a qualification that is internationally recognised which allows them to get jobs as they travel."
Remarkably, QCWT has tailored a course that can be taught to teenagers under the age of 18, using juices and cordials to simulate wine tasting techniques and descriptions.
WSET qualifications are also highly recognised for anyone wishing to become a sommelier, some of which can be responsible for purchasing, cellaring and selling millions of dollars worth of wine.
Some elite Sydney restaurants list single bottles of wine worth as much as $14,000 but they also sell wines worth about $45, a price disparity of some distinction. With this in mind a sommelier's knowledge of wine can be paramount to a restaurant's success.
The Level 1 Certificate, which was organised by the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, is a great course for those wanting to know the main grape varieties and food and wine matching as well as those people who just want to learn more about wine for their own enjoyment.
The course content touches on the main styles of wine available in the world; the main wine grape varieties; storing and serving wine; social, health, safety and legal issues regarding wine consumption; writing tasting notes based on the WSET system; and food and wine matching.
The School of Tourism and Hospitality Management hosted a further two WSET Level 1 Certificate courses at Lismore and the Gold Coast.
"The WSET Award in Wines is a prestigious international qualification, and just one of several activities on which we collaborate with QCWT via our Memorandum of Understanding," Dr Erica Wilson, of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management said.
"We already run field trips to the QCWT facilities at Stanthorpe for our Special Interest Tourism class, which sees students directly involved in wine production and the wine marketing process."
Students shine during fundraiser
GREAT EFFORT: Bradley Curtin, left, with Prue Steel and Dr Genevieve Lovell and the $20,000 cheque to the Westmead Children's Hospital.After a glittering gala dinner at Sydney's swanky Ivy Ballroom, students of Southern Cross University's The Hotel School Sydney raised $20,000 for the Westmead Children's Hospital.
The students, who were studying for a Bachelor of Business in Hotel Management, undertook the assignment as part of their event management unit and exceeded all expectations, according to lecturer Dr Genevieve Lovell. The money was presented to a representative of Westmead Children's Hospital at their graduation ceremony in the Ballroom of the InterContinental Sydney earlier this year.
"Although I was teaching event management to this group of exceptional students, the project was contributory to their course marks and so I had absolutely no input whatsoever to the conception and management of the event," Dr Lovell said.
"I am immensely proud of their dedication, cohesion and focus with which these young people applied themselves to the task."
The fundraiser was put together by 35 students, mostly aged around 20. One student, Ashley Roberts, said it was an enjoyable but taxing assignment.
"The event was a crucial element of the learning process. It allowed students to use the theory learnt to help create an experience of a lifetime while also providing a financial benefit to an institution that brings light to the lives of many young children," she said.
Another student, Bradley Curtin, was proud of the effort by students and the money raised.
"At the beginning of the session I don't think any of us knew how much was involved to organise an event such as this within 10 weeks," he said.
"Especially when we were all juggling other uni commitments, but when it came time to hand the cheque over to Prue from the Children's Hospital, it was definitely a proud moment for me and it gave me a great sense of achievement in trying to make a difference."
The extraordinary amount of money that was raised in a single evening was helped by the support The Hotel School Sydney received from the tourism and hospitality industry.
With most of the students involved in the fundraising having now graduated, many have embarked on careers within the industry. Sophie Mitchell, for example, is now events coordinator at the recently renovated Park Hyatt Sydney, while Michael Stamboulis is a duty manager at Ivy.
Updated: 16 November 2012