Research Assembly with Dr Emmanuel Adu-Ampong

These monthly Assemblies whereby current developments in our fields of events, tourism and hospitality are discussed last for 90 minutes and are organised around one overarching theme. The theme for this academic year is Diversity within Events, Tourism, and Hospitality and our guest speakers tackle it from their preferred standpoint.

Dr Adu-Ampong’s Assembly evoked many stimulating conversations in the room that day on the topic of ‘Assessing accessible tourism research: geographies of who studies what, where and when’. His critical presentation analysed issues of how we discuss issues of ‘accessible tourism’, and ‘disability’ for example. In recent years the economic and social benefits of making tourism accessible to all have attracted the interest of many destination managers and tourism businesses as well as international organisations such as the UNWTO and the European Commission. A growing body of literature on “accessible tourism” have consequently emerged over the last two decades with a substantial growth in research from the late 2000 onward. It is time to take stock of accessible tourism research up to date by examining the past and current trends in this area in order to chart a research agenda for the future. In the seminar presentation, the focus was on a relational bibliometric analysis that evaluates the relationships and patterns within accessible tourism research. Specifically, it was discussed the inter-related geographies of authorship location, fieldwork/case study location and the intellectual (institutional) origins of accessible tourism research.

Other guests who have presented this academic year are Dr Rachel Finkel (Queen Mary University Edinburgh), Professor Marina Novelli (University of Brighton), and Dr Jack Black (Sheffield Hallam University). Colleagues such as Dr Jennie Germann Molz (College of the Holy Cross, USA), Professor Donna Chambers (University of Sunderland), Dr Peter Lugosi (Oxford Brookes University) have accepted our invitation for the next ICRETH Assemblies. For more details about the Assemblies Programme follow this link.