Institute joins International Tourism project

The Institute of Transport and Tourism (ITT) has been invited to join an exciting collaborative research project.

Coordinated by the International Tourism Master Network, the project aims to provide comparative studies of 'Slow Tourism' destinations in a range of countries and regions across the world.

Susanne Hilland from Heilbronn University, Germany, visited ITT at UCLan's School of Sport, Tourism and The Outdoors to discuss the plan. She said: "The project follows on from a joint venture between seven European universities which ended in 2013.

"The International Tourism Master Network will feature around a dozen institutions from the UK, Germany Spain, France, Canada and others to create various knowledge transfer partnerships.

"The project will see a variety of research studies conducted, including slow tourism and food tourism. I'm pleased UCLan are joining the project and look forward to seeing where this takes us.

"My first involvement with ITT was around two years ago through Dr Jo Guiver. We set up an Erasmus student exchange programme between our two universities and the new Network will further develop this relationship."

Peter McGrath, who specialises in Slow Tourism research, said the Institute was delighted to receive the invitation.

"The findings could be instrumental in helping destinations develop their full potential for slow tourism initiatives, as well as providing best practice support for stakeholders in emerging slow tourism destinations.

"As there is relatively little empirical-based research into the actual workings of slow tourism in specific destinations, this is an excellent opportunity for us to be involved."