BA Management, Leadership and Leisure

This unit builds on the units Introduction to Tourism (EDUC10832) and Events Feasibility (EDUC10682) in Year 1, to deepen knowledge and foster critical insights into events, sports, and tourism as key, and tightly connected, elements in contemporary global experience economies, and leisure and recreation industries. Situating both events and tourism as historical products of modernity, the content of the unit specifies the social, cultural, and economic significance of the interrelated industries by drawing on both national and international case studies. Supported by these and input from experts in research and industry, the unit content focusses on the managerial opportunities and challenges of events/tourism and pays particular attention to emergent innovative approaches and practices (e.g., ethical, socially just, and sustainable events, sports and/or tourism destination management). Indicative content: urban events and tourism; events, tourism and community engagement; events and festival tourism; social, cultural and economic significance of events; social, cultural, and environmental responsibility in events and tourism management.

The unit aims to:

Examine events and tourism as key, and tightly connected, components of contemporary global experience culture and economy

Critically explore contemporary societal, cultural, and economic dimensions and impacts of events and tourism on communities

Draw on contemporary research and industry expertise on the development and management of live events and tourism destinations

Analyse and critically reflect on operational opportunities and challenges in managing both events and tourism destinations in ethical and sustainable ways

Students should/will be able to:

up to 12 x 2 hours lectures/seminars supported by individual or group tutorials

• Understand the scope and impacts of, and connection between, the events and tourism sectors in the wider context of global leisure and recreation industries
• Be able to outline how economy, culture and society shape content and form of tourism and event offers
• Illustrate knowledge of the managerial workings and challenges that characterise contemporary tourism and events settings and organisations

• Be able to critically analyse the economic, cultural, and social dimensions of contemporary tourism and events
• Understand both established and contemporary conceptual approaches events and tourism in an inter-disciplinary context
• Be able to understand, and reflect on, scientific methods of enquiry into events and tourism as part of a critical analysis of culture and society.

• Collect and interpret information on a range of events and tourism settings from stakeholders and researchers in the field of tourism and events
• Audit, reflect and write personal blog posts on the topic

• Gather and handle information on tourism destinations and settings; and/or live events to show understanding of the management, development and planning processes
• Apply and develop case study-based study knowledge to assess innovative practice in events and destination management.

Brunt, P., Horner, S. and Semley, N. (2017) Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management. London: SAGE.

Cuffy, V., Bakas, F. and Coetzee, W. (2021), Eds., Events Tourism. Critical insights and contemporary perspectives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Frost, W. and Frost, J. (2020) Events and Tourism. In: The Routledge Handbook of Events. ISBN: 9780367236489

Lew, A. A. (2014) Ed., The Wiley Blackwell companion to tourism. Hoboken, NJ: John