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Alan Machin: Tourism As Education
Home page: blogs, introductions, links to main pages
 
 
Berlin: Editing a Townscape
... and reading a city that has had many rebuilders
 
 
Making Sense of The Travel Learning Experience- 1
1 Information Streams
 
 
Making Sense of the Travel Learning Experience - 2
Some basic theories
 
 
Back to Basics: Presentation given at the Cuba EduTourism Conference
The CETA Conference in Havana, Cuba, 8/9 November 2010
 
 
About the author
Comments - CV - photos
 
 
Showcases
At the heart of the tourist experience
 
 
Learning through Landscapes
Exploring Oxfordshire (and a bit of Gloucestershire!)
 
 
The Environment As Data: Building New Theories For Tourism
How tourists relate to places
 
 
Sail Gives Way to Steam
A return visit discovers just how much has been achieved in this iconic restoration
 
 
Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth Reenactment
Visits to Leicester and the battlefield event, 2013
 
 
Along The Way
Recollections and Reflections of 60+ Years' Learning about the World and its Ways
 
 
On the Edge of the New World
Shaping New England
 
 
Flatland
Exploring Holderness in East Yorkshire; October 2012
 
 
Past Historic
Graf Zepplin, Spain 1968, OS History, Much Wenlock Olympics, Chatham Dockyard, Hawes Tourism, Colonial Williamsburg,
 
 
A Summer of Travelling / Matthew Starr
Three months' backpacking in Africa, Asia and Australia
 
 
East Anglia
The Broads, Pensthorpe natural history, Radar Museum, Caister Lifeboat Service and more!
 
 
A Richer Earth
Discoveries in the landscape and attractions of Shropshire
 
 
Blog Index Page
Blog pages from 2009 listed
 
 
From Strip Map to Sat Nav
'Finding the way' aids to exploration
 
 
Showcasing the World
How the Tourist Microcosm took centre stage
 
 
Doing A Dissertation
Notes to help students preparing their proposals
 
 
The Japanese Tsunami Destruction at First Hand
Sarah and Tom Wadsworth saw for themselves
 
 
Showcases: Examples
The range and variety of tourism's focal points examined
 
 
Jigsaw: Frameworks of Knowledge
The tourist jigsaw puzzle of - knowledge
 
 
Bibliography
Books and other works useful in studying tourism as education
 
 
Tourism's Educational Origins: Part 2
The development of tourism as education, 1845 -
 
 
Tourism's Educational Origins: Part 1
Tourism's educational origins and management
 
 
Impressions of Tourism in Cuba
Thoughts on having seen some of the country myself
 
 
Captain James Cook: North Yorkshire Days
Tracing the early life of Britain's greatest maritime explorer
 
 
Hunting the Hound of the Baskervilles
Tracking down places that inspired the famous detective story and moulded Dartmoor's image
 
 
Exploring the Idea of Dark Tourism
What is it? Is it a useful idea?
 
 
Talking to Tourists
Visitor interpretation - guide books, visitor centres and other media
 
 
Shades of Light and Dark in the Garden of England
An exploration in East Sussex and Kent, June/July 2010
 
 
Hunting the Gladiator and the Gecko
A thirteen-year search for a wartime adventure
 
 
Steam Up For A Famous Film's Birthday Party
The Railway Children weekend on the Worth Valley line raises questions about heritage presentations
 
 
Anne-Marie Rhodes: Making a Difference in South East Asia
Leeds Met graduate of '07 describes her activities
 
 
Discoveries in Northumberland, April 2010
Alnwick Gardens; Winter's Gibbet; Holy Island, Cragside, Wallington Hall
 
 
Discoveries in the Midlands, March 2010
Bletchley Park National Codes and Cipher Centre; and the Rollright Stones
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - April 2010
The development of tourism as education continued
 
 
Jigsaw Puzzle!
The Adventure of the Timely Tourist
 
 
Leaders Into The Field
People who inspired everyone to explore
 
 
Alan Machin's blogs - February and March 2010
Postings on the history tourism as education - redirection
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - January 2010
Tourist photography and souvenirs
 
 
Earlier front-page blog postings - January 2010 onwards
Archived after being on the Home Page
 
 
Bickering
News from higher education and - beyond
 
 
The Development of Educational Tourism
Key dates in the development of educational tourism
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - December 2009
Christmas Quiz and other postings
 
 
Analysing Heritage Tourism
Ideas and perspectives on a hugely important sector
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - November 2009
Visitors' Views of Stonehenge, West Sussex - and other Postings
 
 
Are Universities Losing Their Way?
Reflections having retired
 
 
Teaching Tourism At Leeds Met
Remembering the Best
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - October 2009
Thoughts about university life and discovery by travel
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - September 2009
Further postings about a trip last month to the USA, and about higher education
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - August 2009
Postings about a trip this month to the USA
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - July 2009
The Story So Far reaches the summer
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - June 2009
The Story So Far looks back on seventeen years at Leeds Met
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - May 2009
Another month of The Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's blog - April 2009
Yet more of the Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's blog - March 2009
More of The Story So Far
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - February 2009
The Story So Far - pioneers, people and places
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: January 2009
The Story So Far .... first postings of '09
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: December 2008
The Story So Far .... latest postings
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog - November '08
The Story So Far.... continued
 
 
Alan Machin's Blog: October 2008
The Story So Far....
 
 
No Place Like Rome
The eternal city with the eternal tourists
 
 
Charleston, South Carolina
A photo essay about a fine historic city
 
 
Idealog - December 2007
Ideas, notes and comments
 
 
Idealog - November 2007
Ideas, notes and comments
 
 
The Educational Origins of Tourism
Discussion paper
 
 
Idealog - October 2007
Coton Military Cemetery; Education and Tourism; Chatham Maritime; Dickens World; Quiz Answers; Tourist Guides; Mediation In Tourism
 
 
Idealog - September 2007
Plane Paradox;Tour Guiding; Where in the World?; Do Tourism Students Know Where They Are?; Leeds Met's Wow!; Sea Harrier; Scarborough and Tourism As Education; Doing A Dissertation; Types of Tourist; A Media Lens; Cost of Travelling Alone; Risk of Bias?
 
 
Idealog - August 2007
A People Industry; Heritage Interpretation; Lud's Church; Tourists Go Home!; Stone Gappe YHA; Insight Guides; Eyewitness Guides; Bramhope Tunnel; Elizabethan Progress; Information Quality Matrix
 
 
Idealog - July 2007
Hidden Heroes, Health Tourism, Holme Fen Posts; Harrogate (again); Whitby Abbey; Dramatic Interpretation; Harrogate Interpretation, Attractions and Royal Hall
 
 
Idealog - June 2007
Christian Pilgrimage; Cincinnati Museums Centre; The Coming of the Guide Book; Talking to Tourists - Media, Stages of the Visit, The Service Journey; Tourism's Missing Link; The Final Call; SATuration level; Halifax's Edwardian Window on the World
 
 
Idealog - May 2007
Martin and Osa Johnson, Wensleydale Creamery, Malham Tarn, Thomas Cook, Northern Ireland's Tourism Rebuild, Jamestown Festival Park, Cite des Sciences
 
 
Idealog - April 2007
The Promenade Plantee, The Jardin des Plantes, Environmental Data, Victorian Beauty Spot Rediscovered, Jamestown, The Anglers' Country Park, Children's Museums, Fairburn Ings
 
 
Idealog - March 2007
A Sense of the Past- The 'Amsterdam', The Outdoor Classroom, Film-Induced Tourism, Making Tracks for the Coast and Country, Pictures, Context and Meaning, Classics-on-Sea, Hi Hi Everyone!, Dark Side of the Dream, Holodyne - The Action Cycle
 
 
Idealog - February 2007
Don't Go There!, Space Tourism, The Crystal Cathedral, New Books on Tourism, Dark Tourism - Undercliffe Cemetery, Showcase - The Louvre, A Class Act, First Impressions Count, Postal Pleasures, Canaletto in Venice, Serpent Mound, Capsule Culture etc
 
 
Idealog - January 2007
Capsule Culture,Seaside Style, Poble Espanyol, Mallorca, Edgar Dale, Children's Holiday Homes, Representations of Reality, Outdoor Education in Germany, Baedeker Guides, Geography Textbooks, Environmental Data Theory etc
 
 
Idealog - December 2006
Writers on Landscape, Story Books, The Deep, Flour Power and the Archers,Showcases: Grand Tour, Halifax Piece Hall, Books of Concern about Tourism, Tourist Traces, Tourist Typologies, The Growth of Educational Tourism, The Field Studies Council, etc
 
 
Idealog - November 2006
A blog of ideas, comments and notes
 
 
Travel To Understand: Belfast
Telling the stories of troubled times
 
 
World Quiz 2010
Geography with a tourism angle
 
 
The Monterey Bay Aquarium
An outstanding educational facility in California
 
 
Chicago: Tourism Re-Imaging
A closer view of an iconic city
 
 
Colonial Williamsburg
A Virginia history showcase
 
 
A Social Club Outing By Train, 1935
How to do Scotland in 30 hours flat
 
 
Going Dutch
Presenting the past in the Netherlands
 
 
Keukenhof: Business is Blooming
Using tourism to promote an industry
 
 
A View of Italy for the City
Trentham Gardens Revived
 
 
A Case Study in Heritage Management
A curious tale of misleading publicity
 
 
Old Rice Farm
The story of the house in the 'holler'
 
 
Perfection in Paradise: The Eden Project
New page being added: The Eden Project's design for success
 
 
Escaping From Slavery: Facing Our Past
The US National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
 
 
Prague Tourist Shows
Outstanding showcase attractions in the city
 
 
Retracing the Steps: Tourism as Education
ATLAS Conference paper given in Finland, 2000
 
 
Tourism and Historic Towns: The Cultural Key
A background paper for a Council of Europe Conference
 
 
The Social Helix
Visitor Interpretation as a Tool for Social Development, 1989
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 Feb 2006 - Page 1
Reports and Pictures
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 Feb 2006 - Page 2
Photos and reports of Friday 17 Feb onwards
 
 
Malta Residential, 14-21 February 2006 - Page 3
Reports and pictures from Sunday, 19 February onwards
 
 
Tourism Alumni Reunion, 8 March 2003
Leeds tourism students reunion 2003
 
 
World Geography Quiz 1
A test of your knowledge
 
 
The Adventure of the Timely Tourist
The answers
 
 
Tall Ships Race 2010 Converged on Hartlepool
A major event-based boost for tourism in the town
 
 
Plymouth: From the Tamar to the Sea
Starting point for explorations round the globe
 
 
Plimoth Plantation
A reconstruction of the Mayflower settlers' village of the 1620s on the north east coast of North America
 
 
World Geography Quiz 2010 - Answers
Geography with a tourism angle
 
 
World Geography Quiz - Answers
 
 
Christmas Quiz 2009 - Answers
 
 
Oxford
A day in the city including the Botanic Garden
 
 
Tourist Showcases
Examples from around the world
 
 

Teaching Tourism At Leeds Met

Alumni general

The People Who Made The Course ....

.... What It Was. And I mean the tutors and students, probably as much the students than the tutors. So that's why these photos are mainly of students. They're now spread round the country and indeed the world, doing jobs in tourism or in other industries, raising families, caring for people, doing voluntary work at home and abroad. Making an enormous contribution in a thousand ways. Since 1992 there have been over a thousand students on the course - 1,200-plus might be more accurate, though some people left early, moved to a different course, were replaced by others who came in just for a year or two. So above is just a fraction of them. The photos show people at the summer balls that used to be a feature of the course; one shows a small group in Finland on exchange for a semester; others were taken at end of course dinners and lunches. One was taken in March 2003 at the end of a tourism course reunion that attracted over 70 ex-students back to Leeds. The group with badges had just presented their report at the end of the Industrially Hosted Project module (Tourism Consultancy Ventures nowadays). Those with beer glasses were at a general course social in a crowd of 150 from across the whole course.

Alumni 01

Nostalgic '96

A student asked me when I retired if I felt emotional about reaching retirement after seventeen years of teaching at Leeds Met. I said yes and no: sad to be leaving something I loved doing but not at all sad to be leaving system in which education has become more of a production line. It did make me think that our existing students as well as our alumni might find some brief reminiscences about the Tourism course interesting - and nostalgic for those who took part. Some of the changes become clearer.

Above is the group who graduated back in 1996 and some of their number in more recent years. They are Amin Abdullah, back home in Malaysia, Pippa Gilligan, Rachel Bywater, Cathy Newton, Suzannah Fenwick, and Mark Fisher. News of these and many other ex-students appears on the Alumni News page of this web site.

This was the 'guinea-pig group' that started in September 1992 in Carnegie Hall at Beckett Park, now termed the Headingley Campus. Besides myself the basic team of tutors was just three - Irena Snowden, Keith Hollinshead and myself. An HND course ran at Wakefield College for two years under Tim Pavour. There were ten modules per year rather than eight, which allowed a finer definition of subjects and arguably demanded more work! Everyone went to Scarborough for a three-day residential with lectures, visits, evening work sessions and social activities. Scarborough worked so well that the group asked if we could do another trip and as a result we went to Edinburgh later in the year for two nights. Scarborough was a regular fixture until student numbers made it impracticable - even Edinburgh popped up again for the next student group on the course. Lectures and seminars drew on tutors from the Leisure Studies course such as John Spink and from the Business School like Tim Birtwhistle. Everyone did a foreign language and everyone did a placement. Susannah Fenwick said she came back three years older, it was such a strong developmental experience.

This was a strong, lively cohort who organised their own dinner-dance at the end of the course. It was held at the Craiglands Hotel in Ilkley and attended by students from other years besides the graduating one.

Alumni 02

Tourism at Leeds Met Alumni - Nostalgia for '97

Above is the second graduating class of the course. Besides the group photo this was the year when the custom started of everyone meeting up for a last lunch before setting off - everywhere. Tutor John Spink joined others (he's the distinguished grey-haired gent in a blue shirt at the bottom right) at a bar in town. Many of those in the photos are mentioned on the Alumni News page of this web site. Careers were made in tourism - Sue and Sally joined Sportsworld and worked on all kinds of international gatherings including the Olympics: Joanna became a member of airline cabin crew, others went in to general travel operations, tourist attractions and hotel marketing. Others used their management training and growing life experience in non-tourism job including counselling and community activities.

At that time the University was converting buildings on the Headingley Campus at Beckett Park from teaching and residential units to teaching only. The University was growing, having changed its status from polytechnic in February 1993. In 1992 we were in the Carnegie Hall. This year saw us open in temporary space at the back of the main, James Graham Building, which itself would undergo many changes. Teaching accommodation was cramped and tutors in open plan offices. Even with relatively small numbers the effect was to create teaching and pastoral care problems. Space was limited and also often had to be booked, even for dealing with thosae little emergencies which crop up regularly. In later years we would hear of the University of Bickeringham which introduced a call centre to manage its hundreds of students trying to ask their tutors a question or two. It placed a reception desk between the teachers and the taught. Open plan became the managerial fashion with the inevitable open access to every private conversation around. We were glad we would soon be returning to a proper system in our next home, Fairfax Hall.

Alumni 03

Nostalgic for '98

The 1998 graduating class had their academic life in Fairfax Hall back in '94. It was in 1995 that the course moved to the City Campus, supposedly for one year before going back to Beckett Park. That move turned out to be non-existent and Tourism would stay in the City until this coming summer of 2009, a move planned to last only one year before transferring to a building due to be added to the Headingley Sports Stadium complex.

At the end of the final year the students took themselves to a bar in town for lunch, this time very informal and still as relaxed and sociable as ever. This year they held a summer ball at the Queens Hotel. It was memorable not only for the dinner and the dancing but also for the way it ended. Virtually every student was there at 2:30, circling round, wishing each other well for the future and bidding what for some were tearful goodbyes. Within a few hours some had flown out of the UK to new jobs or summer holidays. Amongst those in the photos are people who would start new lives in the United States, Spain and New Zealand besides others in Europe and the UK. Several are mentioned on the Alumni News page here.

Alumni 04

Nostalgic '99

OK, OK, it's not quite the same sort of photo group. Ten years ago, this was the fourth group of students to complete the course. They gathered for the traditional celebratory lunch at what used to be the Rat and Parrot. I took photos as usual but on print film and to be honest they were not my best effort. So rather than present a collection of shaky and fuzzy student pictures, it's time for a quick memory of parts of the City Campus. After all, F building, unloved architecturally but engraved forever in our collective consciousness, should be going within a year. The mezzanine floor, scene of many an informal meeting; Calverley Street entrance and coffee break area; the Dry Dock canal barge come pub across Woodhouse Lane; the main entrance opposite the Dry Dock, and of course F Building itself. But higher education is about people, not grey concrete rendering.

Like all UK tourism courses a large proportion of our exes went in to the industry, but almost an equal number didn't. It's as if they took a management and self-development course with tourism as the focus to make it interesting. There has always been a large percentage of women on the course. It could be argued that doing this kind of degree or diploma is a way of opening up doors into management for them. May be a way of cracking open the glass ceiling?

Of those in the picture, there were people who went to work in marketing at Boots head office; two, at least, in ski resorts; one took up a senior administrative post in a Norwegian airline; one went as a trek manager with an adventure holiday compnay, another in to business-to-business services in the far east. Another joined the post office while a friend of hers set up a business arranging weddings. One of the group took up a marketing post in sports tourism in a Caribbean country. An interesting career was that of one of the women who worked in tourism and decided to pursue a different career: she took a degree in civil engineering and that's what she does now: like all of them, constructing a career and a life stretching successfully beyond Leeds Met.

Alumni 05b

Terrific 2000!

Heavy rain made it impossible to get a photo immediately after the final exam sat by the 2000 cohort and so we had to make do with one outside the Town Hall in November when the Awards Ceremony took place. This group achieved some of the highest award classifications ever and from memory I think there were 14 first class dissertations amongst the honours.

It was part the International Tourism Management group of students who made the first residential visit to Malta in 1997. The small-group photo above - right-hand end - is of them at a lecture at the University of Malta and the one on the right was taken in a bar on the last night. The Malta visit was introduced thanks to the work of Peter Dewhurst, Helen Horobin and Andrew Eaglen, with myself joining the first visit and taking over the organisation after that. Complemented by a low-cost, Leeds or York-based field week in later years it gave the chance to study tourism and to get to know other people. Both versions combined lectures, visits and field work with evening workshops followed by plenty of socialising, in the tradition which had been established by earlier visits to Scarborough and Edinburgh.

Others went the following year - what we used to call the BA Tourism Management group who were on a slightly different timetable.

As usual the members of the class of 2000 are now spread round the globe as well as across the UK, working for prestigious organisations like the Economist magazine and Thomas Cook as well as in travel and hotel operations, teaching, IT and financial services.

Alumni 06

Class of 2004

Some of them at least - plus Annemarie Piso with her children.

Alumni 07

Class of 2005

From the photos displayed at the pre-retirement party. Can be downloaded - hover your cursor over the piccy and choose 'save to file'.

Alumni 08
Blackpool group

Look Back At Blackpool

Some more reflection on the recent past of the Tourism course. The group above - most of whom have just (2009) completed their final year - was on a one-day visit to Blackpool in 2007. There was a short social gathering in Yates's Wine Bar, a well-known Blackpool landmark on Talbot Square which was sadly burnt down earlier this year. Their visit was in March and the weather was not at its best - cold and windy with waves breaking against the sea wall. The tram system was being maintained so was not running. On the other hand many students went into the Tower Ballroom where old-time dancing was in progress in its magnificent setting. Others took a trip to the top of the Tower or along the promenade. For most, though, the fun of a social occasion getting to know other students and tutors was the highlight.

Graduation 2007

Celebrations in 2007

The Diploma and Degree students after receiving their well-deserved awards in July 2007 at the Headingley Campus.

[Postings are being moved to this page from the May '09 blog page]

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