MSc Tourism Development

We pride ourselves on our high teaching standards, flexible teaching methods, research excellence and international reputation. Our internationally renowned staff are committed to management education and we have an enviable employment record.

Throughout your time at Surrey you will have access to a range of services and support, and we are committed to helping you to develop your study skills.

Tourism Fieldtrip to Cambridge

The Destination Management and Marketing module includes a three-day fieldtrip to Cambridge. It incorporates guest lecture sessions from local and regional destination marketing organisations, as well as a city and college tour. Additionally, you will gain first-hand experience of addressing a specific research problem and conducting marketing research. Insights gained from the field experience are channelled back into producing a theoretical report.

Fieldtrips to Kensington Palace, the Tower of London and Thorpe Park

As part of the Visitor Attraction Management module this year, Tourism MSc students engaged in the challenging tasks of investigating managerial challenges at three of the leading visitor attractions in London: Kensington Palace, the Tower of London and Thorpe Park. In each visit students had the chance to talk to members of the attraction management team and conducted field research in order to explore different managerial issues and reveal the unique challenges faced by these visitor attractions.

While visiting the Tower of London, students had a guided tour by a ‘Blue Badge Guide’ and enjoyed a presentation by the Head of Marketing of the Historic Royal Palaces, and the Head of Visitor and Commercial Services for the Tower of London.

At Thorpe Park, students had the chance to experience the practice of theme park management with a ‘back stage’ tour of the park. During this, students enjoyed a talk with the park’s public relations and finance managers. Students also conducted field research to analyse the ‘visitor experience’.

During the visit to Kensington Palace, students were exposed to the new development plans for the Palace and got a ‘sneak preview’ of its innovative and conceptually revolutionary new exhibition. This was accompanied by a guided tour of the site and a discussion with the Palace’s Visitor Experience Manager and Education Officer.

Fieldtrip to Brighton

As part of the Tourism Management module, you will participate in a one-day fieldtrip to Brighton. The fieldtrip includes a talk and Q&A session with the Director of VisitBrighton and a guided tour led by a ‘Blue Badge Guide’.

During the fieldtrip, students evaluate the portfolio of tourism attractions and infrastructure in Brighton, and examine issues related to destination rejuvenation and development, and the role of meetings and conferences in destination development and management.

Our learning resources are second to none. We are housed in the state-of-the-art Management School building which is wireless-networked and benefits from well-equipped computer laboratories, dedicated high-quality seminar rooms and a 400-seat auditorium.

We have a purpose-built student common room, our own coffee shop and the Lakeside Restaurant which, as well as operating as a professional, fully functioning business, is utilised as a fundamental part of our Hospitality Management programmes.

We also have one of the world’s most extensive ranges of books, journals and e-resources in tourism and hospitality. The Library’s acquisition policy is to purchase every text published in this field. We are a designated depository for United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) publications.

• Over the last 40 years, we have established a leading international reputation in tourism education and research
• We are consistently ranked as one of the best tourism schools in the UK and are widely regarded as one of the best universities in the world for tourism scholarship
• In the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) 90 per cent of our tourism research was rated as recognised internationally and 60 per cent as internationally excellent or world-leading. The profile of tourism and hospitality research was particularly commended by the panel for being world-leading
• We were the first institution in the UK to achieve United Nations World Tourism Organization TedQual certification, which all our Tourism programmes hold
• We excel in both education and research, demonstrated by our publications and networks, our high rates of employment for graduates and the significant contribution we make to good practice in the tourism industry.

Leading Researchers

Our academic staff have been recognised for their excellence and contribution to tourism. Past and present academic staff have produced some of the leading textbooks and research theories, including Professor Richard Butler’s Tourism Lifecycle Theory and Professor Brian Archer’s Multiplier Models.

Professors John Tribe and David Airey are world-leading researchers in tourism education. They represent the University of Surrey which holds the chair of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Education and Science Council, are both members of the Academy of the Learned Societies in Social Sciences and have both been Chair of the Association of Tourism in Higher Education. Professor John Tribe is also editor-in-chief of Annals of Tourism Research, the world-leading journal in tourism social sciences.

Research Case Study: Sustainable Tourism Defra Project

The University of Surrey has recently completed a study for the UK government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on public understanding of sustainable leisure and tourism.
The project was commissioned as part of a larger programme of work for the Sustainable Consumption Programme within Defra. The research explored the willingness of respondents to change their behaviour towards more sustainable alternatives, such as shifting from an overseas holiday to a domestic holiday, reducing the amount of travel, travelling by less impacting forms of transport, or doing less impacting things whilst on holiday or at leisure.

The report explains responses to these desired changes in more detail: while there was some interest in doing things differently and with an eye to the sustainability implications of actions, there was little appetite for doing different things and a thorough rejection of travelling less!

Professor Graham Miller, who led the project, said: “The research has proved to be of interest to practitioners as it runs contrary to much of the overly positive survey evidence produced that suggests tourists are ready to flock to sustainable tourism products, but for which there is very little corroborating market evidence.”

Dr Caroline Scarles, Dr Kirsten Holmes and Professor John Tribe were co-investigators on the Defra project.