Shaping the City...

The Birmingham Big City Plan provides the ideas for shaping the city centre over the next 20 years although the wider economic situation may mean that development plans for regenerating Eastside may be shelved. Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council has been busy consulting with the public regarding the Sustainable Community Strategy in which they have set out their vision and targets for the wider community upto 2026.

Well done if you took part in The Big Picture! This was a project which took place over a period of 6 months this year to produce the World's Largest Photo Mosaic.

The Heart of England Excellence in Tourism awards will be be recognising quality and innovation in a range of tourism and hospitality ventures. Tickets for the event which will take place at the ICC are now on sale. Take a look at what the regions in the Midlands have to offer and cast a vote...

Recently, David Cameron MP was reported to say 'It's great to be in Birmingham'...It is energetic, vibrant and on the up', following the Conservative Party Conference which was hosted by the ICC recently (Forward, p.2). So impressed in fact, they are planning to hold the next conference here in 2010.

Report - Domestic Tourism

According to VisitBritain, representatives from across the travel industry agree the economic downturn, rising costs and falling consumer confidence are affecting prospects for the coming months. However, the positive outlook is that consumers persuaded to stay close to home by a weak pound and higher fuel costs represent a real opportunity for local tourism businesses. VisitBritain have released latest figures for domestic tourism in this online report.

LeisureTourism.com

The latest articles include a feature on the pollution issue that was such a concern before the Beijing Games and also looks at the performance of hotels there. Two articles look at what has happened in Athens since the 2004 Games, with Olympic venues standing empty but a revival for the hotel industry. Two articles have featured sport nutrition, an important factor in elite sport performance. Also in sport, the last month has seen a Database Focus article on winter sports injuries.

The economic slowdown has prompted a discussion on falling visitor numbers in Hawaii, while in the UK, the question is whether falling international arrivals may be offset by an increase in domestic tourism as holidaymakers look to take cheaper vacations at home. Funding targeting revival in English seaside resorts is also featured in the UK.

Tourism destinations featured recently include the Maldives, East Africa, India and Cambodia. Golf tourism development in the Philippines is reported, and we feature a report from the USA on how foreign tourists could help the US economy. Tourism issues featured include the effectiveness of loyalty schemes, attempts to set global criteria for Sustainable Tourism, and whether tourism can ever safely coexist with wildlife conservation. Other articles include hospitality management in China, and how to combine profitability and sustainability in the hotel industry.

Upcoming Conferences:

2008, November 21 - 22
Conference: 2nd Asia-Euro Tourism, Hospitality & Gastronomy Conference 2008
Venue: Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

2009, September 16 - 18
Conference: World Medical Health Tourism Conference
Venue: Phuket, Thailand

Dankai & W34 Research Summary

The latest research by VisitBritain highlights the perceptions of Britain as a destination for Japanese tourists. It has shown that life in Japan over the past ten years has changed and this has influenced the way people take holidays. It appears that people are looking for a more meaningful holiday, as opposed to cramming in as much as possible. There is also great admiration in Britain’s ability to preserve its historical, cultural and natural sites which makes it a place that most Japanese people want to visit at least once in their life time more..

ITB Berlin

The ITB Berlin 2008 - Exhibitors' Survey has now been published. This provides statistics on this year's exhibition - areas of focus include the origin of trade visitors, their line of business and their perceived business success following the exhibition. Also includes a Private Visitors' Survey.

ITB Berlin is an annual tourism trade fair with approximately 11,000 exhibitors in 2008 representing every sector of the tourism industry. The exhibition lasts 5 days of which 3 days are for trade visitors. ITB Asia takes place from 22-24 October for those lucky enough to be in Singapore this week. ITB Germany 2009 will take place next March. See their website for further details or click here to register.

A note on ebooks...

As more and more popular titles come online, we try to encourage students to make use of these as much as possible for a number of reasons - they are available around the clock, whether you are studying onsite or at home; it is possible to search within the book itself; there is a facility to make notes - which can then be downloaded. You may wish to download a book to your desktop for a number of days for easy access by bypassing Blackboard. Or you may wish to view the book quickly online without downloading. But best of all, you don't have to worry about the book being late and clocking up fines!

Two popular tourism titles by Buhalis are now available online Tourism Business Frontiers (Dawson Books) and Tourism Management Dynamics (Ebook Library). For a full list of ebooks available, take a look in the Ebooks Catalogue, available from the Library Catalogue page.

Remember - each of the ebook databases have their various quirks:

Netlibrary - click on 'Athens Users Log-in here' to access the search page. Ebooks are not downloadable but instead, can be viewed as long as is needed. HOWEVER, if there is inactivity longer than 15 minutes, you will be logged out of the ebook.

Dawson Books - to view online, click the appropriate link on the search results page; to download, click on the title of the book and scroll down for this option.

Ebook Library - the options to view online or download are both available when you access a title.