An interview with Dr Tim Coles, Programme Director of the MSc Tourism, Development and Policy at The University of Exeter
What is the significance of the tourism industry in the 21st century?
We are increasingly mobile in the 21st century, making more and more trips. Our lives are defined by these trips. Tourism in its many different guises is central to our experience as human beings - you can’t get away from it. The Olympics, climate change, poverty alleviation, sustainable development, place promotion and investment – all the hot topics relate to tourism in one way or another. You simply can’t understand the world today without understanding tourism.Tourism is a complex social, cultural and economic phenomenon and one of the most significant global phenomena, not to say the world's largest industry as many claim.
So, you don't have to have a background in tourism or business at undergraduate level to study tourism?
No, not necessarily. We get people coming from arts, humanities, science and social science backgrounds as well as those from tourism, business and management first degrees. By the end of the programme many of our students appreciate the combination of business skills and the 'bigger picture view' we provide.
What is the importance of the 'policy' element in tourism?
Policy is central to tourism. It's a word everyone one likes to use but no one likes to define. Basically, there are two sorts of policy relevant to the industry: Tourism policy and policy pertaining to tourism. Important issues surrounding the future of tourism include transport, immigration, education, and employment policies – they are all linked. We teach students to identify the implications of policy and adapt to them, to recognise that tourism is lurking in many other policy arenas. Cover all the policy issues and you’ll be in a better position to predict the implications for the industry.
And policy is clearly important to the future development of tourism?
In some quite unexpected ways that are difficult to predict. Take climate change. What are the policy implications for tourism of managing and conserving the environment? Everyone stresses aviation as the issue in controlling CO2 emissions but we rarely make the link that it’s tourism that drives the demand for aviation. Climate change is now a huge, huge concern as we’ve seen since the Stern Report. We have been looking at the policy issues around climate change, at how low cost airlines market themselves and connecting that with how people choose holidays.
What are the sorts of business skills that are relevant to the development and management of tourism?
Fundamentally the ability to embrace change is the key skill. September 11th, Foot and Mouth Disease, SARS, bird flu, the Tsunami – over the last few years, the global tourism industry has been plagued by crises and disasters. As we teach our students, change has been the only real 'constant', if you like. How you deal with changing circumstances will define whether you are a success or a failure in the tourism industry, but these skills are an essential in any business area.
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