A group of Honours students on the undergraduate Hospitality and Tourism programme spent the day getting acquainted with Dundee as part of the course's "Tourism: Place and Space" class.
They were met on arrival into Dundee by one of the city's 'Ambassadors' before attending a presentation of the new Dundee brand, and another on the Dundee Waterfront. After lunch with the Lord Provost, they were given a tour of the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre and Dundee's Discovery Point.
Dr Derek Bryce explained, "Tourism, leisure and culture's role in post-industrial City redevelopment was a core theme and Dundee offered an interesting exemplar in terms of its own current city marketing and development strategies. Students were invited to make links between themes covered in class and the various presentations and tours provided by our hosts in Dundee. Our hosts were briefed on the thematic content of the class itself and tailored their provision accordingly.
"Students were able to apply theory to context in a real city environment. They were able to hear first hand from city marketers and planners how re-imaging, waterfront redevelopment and the arts all fit into an urban discourse that is designed to attract both high quality inward investment and tourism to Dundee.
"While Glasgow is in many ways an ideal case study for all of the themes mentioned above - and in fact Glasgow City Marketing Bureau gave two guest lectures to this class - I thought it was important that the students were exposed to less 'central-belt-centric' examples and to understand that interesting and exciting initiatives are underway in other parts of Scotland."