British Destinations

Vote for new National Coastal Tourism Academy Coastal Research Project!

Posted on February 24, 2016 Updated on February 24, 2016

The National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA) is offering destination and local business practitioners the opportunity influence the choice of the Academy’s next research project by voting on each of their 9 research proposals and/or giving alternative options and views.  For ease the detail of the 9/10 options are reproduced below or you can go direct to the voting pages on the NCTA website at: Vote for your choice.

Deadline for responses is 4 March. Non-coastal and non-English coastal destination practitioners may have equally valid and valuable insight to offer to the NCTA team and, whatever the research undertaken is it will doubtless have wider utility, so please consider giving your views regardless of your geographic or home national status.

Health and Wellness: What really makes a trip to the coast a self-development wellness break? This research will look at each of the 6 types of wellness to understand what is needed to turn a walk, visit to the theatre, spa day or dance lesson, for example, into a real self-development experience.

How can tourism use Big Data?  There’s a lot of noise about big data, but what is it and how can it be used for tourism? This project will explore how it can be accessed and used by destinations to benefit their development, management and promotion.

Industry skills: Attracting young people: Attracting staff and apprentices into the hospitality and tourism sector is a critical issue. This proposal will analyse why young people are deterred from entering, evaluating their perceptions, motivations and what part their peers, parents or teachers play to help create new strategies.

Beach-loving Baby Boomers: With an older but healthier and more active population, there is a wealth of opportunities on the coast. This project aims to unearth the extent of this market for coastal tourism and explore the opportunities.

Active Holidays: Retreats, catered chalets and activity holidays are a big and growing business on the coast in Europe. This proposition looks at individual case studies, exploring what products exist to increase the UK market and the extent and potential for growth.

International visitors: How can we attract them to the coast? Destinations are being encouraged to think about developing products to appeal to overseas markets. But which nationalities and at what age and life stage should coastal resorts focus on and what facilities do international visitors require and when would they come?

Surge in the sharing economy: Challenges and opportunities: The sharing economy, which enables people to capitalise on unused assets, AirBNB , OneFineStay, ShareYourMeal for example, has seen exponential growth and is expanding into new services such as tour guiding, but little is known about its impact on the coast. This research will provide a profile of a ‘sharing economy’ from both a demand and supply side and will look at how traditional operators work alongside these new operators to ensure profitability and a great visitor experience.

LGBT Visitors and Coastal Destinations: Coastal destinations have long been associated with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) market. But what is its current state? This research will highlight the opportunities for coastal destinations of all sizes to attract LGBT visitors through product development and marketing and the benefits of the LGBT visitor market in combating issues such as seasonality.

Any other suggestions?  You thoughts on other options or alternative research projects.