students with Karl Bolton and staff members Dr Karen Thompson and Dr Derek Bryce
students with Karl Bolton and staff members Dr Karen Thompson and Dr Derek Bryce
Students of tourism and hospitality recently benefitted from a visit from an alumnus of the MSc Tourism programme. Karl Bolton, Commercial Manager with Thomas Cook's adventure travel brand Neilson spent two days with postgraduate hospitality and tourism students and staff in the department of Marketing. Karl was able to share with students his extensive experience of adventure travel product development with Explore and Neilson, as well as giving them an insight into how risk is managed by adventure travel operators. Karl also presented a case study of crisis management to first year students of tourism and hospitality in the Department of Management. Students on the MSc International Tourism Management course have been offered the opportunity of a research-based placement at Neilson's office in Brighton.
The Department of Marketing was equally delighted to facilitate a visit from the HR team of Starwood's luxury Turnberry resort in Ayrshire. Starwood are keen to recruit postgraduate and honours students of hospitality management to their Vita Futura graduate training scheme.
MSc International Hospitality Management students were invited to visit the Gleneagles hotel near Auchterarder in Perthshire (host of the 2005 G8 summit). The students were able to sample first-hand some of the finest hospitality Scotland has to offer whilst learning about some of the key operational issues faced by the hotel including the outsourcing of support services, guest relationship management and the hotel's use of annualised hours to minimise the negative impacts of demand peaks and troughs. Senior members of the management team also discussed the operational challenges of hosting the G8 summit.