Research, Knowledge Exchange and the Professional Development of Destination Managers: Towards A Critical Approach

‘The nature of professional and everyday life increasingly demands critical thinking. Indeed the cost of generating a growing mass of uncritical thinkers as workers and citizens is staggering….Intellectually undisciplined, narrow-minded thinking will not solve increasingly complex, multidimensional problems, let alone provide the basis for democratic decision-making.’

(Richard Paul, founder of the Centre for Critical Thinking cited by Linda Elder, Times Higher, 6-12 August, 36)

As an emerging field of professional practice, destination management is a good example of an increasingly complex, multidimensional domain of policy and practice that importantly and centrally, also relates to communitiesand the quality of life and place.

In the past the destination manager(more usually labelled as ‘tourism officer’) focused primarily on tourism strategy, development, marketing,the provision of visitor information and liaison with the private sector and, to varying degrees with local communities. To a large extent this remains the case. However, increasingly destination managers have assumed or been allocated responsibilities in fields relating to the fashionable (if not new) place-making agenda. Such responsibilities include for examplepromoting sustainable development, regeneration, heritage, culture and the arts.These are key contributors to the distinctiveness and attractiveness of places for visitors, inward investors and residents alike. All of these fields are the subject of criticalresearch that relates, or may be applied more or less to professional practice and development.

The academic field of Tourism (and Destination) Studies has expanded in recent years with a growing body of research extending within and beyond the ‘traditional’ focus on Management and Geographical studies applied to tourism. Much, if not all of this work has the potential to contribute insights that are valuable for the ongoing professional development of destination managers as reflexive practitioners and to enhance the status of the sector as a genuine profession with an associated body of knowledge and research that is subject to critical review and development. Put simply, research informed by theoretical and international perspectives can offer new ideas and ways of thinking about tourism and the destination and can or should contribute to enhancing professional practicein and across the sector.

Research that is relevant to the professional interests of destination managers is published in the form of books and monographs and also in the more than 80international research journals spanning tourism, hospitality, leisure and recreation studies, with two thirds of these having been founded since 1990. Articles relating to destination management are also published in more established research domains in the social sciences and Humanities including Geography, Planning, Environmental Studies, and Architecture etc.

Unfortunately, much of this research does not come to the attention of the destination management practitioner. Reasons for this include an inability to access papers published in the journals without being registered for study at a University with decent library and research collections. Academic journals and many text books are also aimed mainly towards the interests of other researchers and students in their field and accusations, sometimes justified, sometimes not may be levelled by practitioners at the apparent obscurity and density of academic writing and its lack of immediately obvious application to professional practice.The long time lag between the submission and publication of articles in peer reviewed journals is also a mystery to practitioners.

On the other hand, academics may justifiably level criticisms at the imprecise, generic and uncritical language of some policy and practiceresearch with its emphasis at times on finding simplistic ‘solutions’ to complex problems and basis on spurious ‘evidence’that does not always stand up to critical scrutiny.

This suggests a need for the translationof selected academic research through structured education and training programmes at postgraduate level and the genuine exchange of knowledge between researchers, policy makers and practitioners based on mutual respect and a desire to learn from each other. This is illustrated by the recent introduction of the TMI postgraduate level professional programme in destination management led by LeedsMetropolitanUniversity with Bournemouth and LancasterUniversities. Here research and theoretical knowledge is packaged in ways that allow for participants to reflect on their professional experience and to identify new ways of thinking through the complexities of work commitments. The postgraduate level is important here in acknowledging the qualifications held typically by destination managers and also a need to go beyond a narrow skills agenda that seeks to ‘meet the needs of the industry’ to a position where we interrogate and at times challenge those ‘needs’ in suggesting new directions for professional policy and practice.

Opportunities also exist for developing original contributions to knowledgeconcerning destination management through a major research project leading to the award of PhD. An example of such a project recently commenced at LeedsMetropolitanUniversity and focuses on the relationships between academic and professional knowledge in developing destination management policy and practice in the UK.This research will examine theapparent dichotomy that exists between research producers (usually academics) and users (practitioners and policy makers). This dichotomy has been recognised to an extent, and Universities, encouraged by research funding councils, have introduced a range of measures to translate academic research into practitioner knowledge, for example through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, work placements for students and CPD schemes.

A number of research issues flow from these observations including:

  • The sources of research, information and evidence used bydestination managers
  • Policy makers and practitioners awareness and perceptions of academic research
  • The relevance of the “critical turn” in academic research on tourismfor policy makersand practitioners
  • Barriers to the use of academic research
  • The extent to which academics emphasise the application of their research in the policy context
  • The relationships between consultancy and academic research
  • Research production and use in comparable sectors
  • Research production and use in other countries

Thisproject thus aims to explore the responsiveness of the academy to the needs and practices of the destination management sector, while recognising the importance of challenging declared needs and existing professional practices (and, importantly for practitioners to have opportunities to question and challenge academic, theoretical thinking).

We recognise that there is a tendency for academics and practitioners to inhabit different worlds with contrasting professional demands, imperatives, cultures, perspectives and priorities. However, there is a need to challenge stereotypical views of researchers being in ‘ivory towers’ detached from the ‘real world’ and of practitioners not valuing nor welcoming critical perspectives and policies and practices and judging research solely or primarily on its perceived ‘usefulness’.

We therefore need to explore the nature of knowledge in destination management and consider how new thinking and critical ideas emerge.

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