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Leeds Beckett Dean to present at international tourism conference
Rhodri Thomas, Professor of Tourism and Events Policy at Leeds Beckett and Dean of the School of Events, Tourism & Hospitality Management, will speak at the Contemporary Trends in Tourism and Hospitality conference (CTTH 2017), held in Novi Sad in Serbia on 1 and 2 September.
Rhodri’s keynote presentation is entitled ‘New spaces in cultural tourism: a role for universities in innovation?’ and will explore aspects of the conference theme from the prospective contribution of universities to innovation in local or regional cultural tourism. Rhodri will begin by reviewing what is understood about the dynamics of innovation and the role external knowledge plays in commercial, non-commercial and policy innovation processes in tourism. He will then consider knowledge production undertaken by universities and examine the contribution institutions might make to innovation in cultural tourism, events and festivals. In the presentation he will also consider how the challenges to collaboration might be overcome.
CTTH 2017 is an international conference exploring research in tourism, leisure, hotel management, hunting tourism, gastronomy and multidisciplinary studies such are events and meeting industry, entrepreneurship in hospitality and the creative industries.
The main aim of the conference is to put emphasis on the importance of cultural and event tourism as important factors for improvement of tourism and general economic image of certain country or region.
This year the working title of the conference is ‘New Spaces in Cultural Tourism’ and the conference is merged with one of the most exciting festival in Novi Sad – The Street Musicians Festival.
Rhodri Thomas is Professor of Tourism and Events Policy and Dean of the School of Events, Tourism & Hospitality Management.
Originally trained as an economist, Rhodri now engages in multidisciplinary research in the context of tourism and the events sector. His particular research interests are: (a) public policy studies, especially in relation to small firms, and (b) innovation and knowledge exchange.
Rhodri has acted as a 'specialist expert' on policy issues for the OECD, the European Commission and for government departments and other agencies in the UK and elsewhere. He has completed several Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) grant and non-grant funded projects and is a member of their Peer Review College. His Chair was, uniquely, supported by the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) for five years.