Culture and the 2012 games: creating a tourism legacy?

The role of tourism in delivering wider economic legacies is strongly stated in recent national tourism policy documents. The Olympic Games are envisaged to have the legacy impact of ‘4 million extra visitors’ and ‘50,000 extra jobs’ over 4 years (DCMS (2011). Government Tourism Policy, p. 15). This paper considers the nature of Olympic tourism and the possible contribution of the Cultural Olympiad to developing a cultural tourism legacy. It does this by investigating local perceptions of culture and local cultural enactments in the London Borough of Hackney, one of the five boroughs surrounding the Olympic Park. This research shows that local cultural enactments and programming connected to the Olympics are largely motivated by a wider social agenda. They are funded by a wide variety of arts, social and youth programmes and largely reflect initiatives and projects that were already in place in the Borough. While there is an acceptance that cultural events might stimulate the visitor economy, specific discourses around ‘tourism’ and ‘tourists’ are not expressed by the people engaged in the local process.

The complexities of tourism and regeneration: the case of the 2012 Olympic Games

Regeneration proposals typically seek to use a range of physical, economic and social initiatives to tackle inequality and improve areas. Often they attempt to change the image of places, making them more attractive to tourists, investors, and residents. The role of tourism in these regeneration processes is complex and contested. Tourism elements are often not well understood by decision-makers and sometimes create tensions with wider social regeneration aspirations. Using concepts from complexity theory, this paper interrogates the relationship between tourism and wider regeneration aspirations connected with the 2012 Olympic Games. It uses complexity theory to explore the context within which policies are developed, and the relationships between different policy initiatives. Both are highly complex, constantly evolving and sometimes ambiguous. It argues complexity concepts might be used to help to develop deeper understanding of the relationships between tourism and regeneration.

The trade specialization of SANE: evidence from manufacturing industries

This paper studies the evolution of the foreign trade specialization in manufacturing sectors of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. These four countries, the so-called SANE, have recently been viewed as Africa’s best chance of producing an economic bloc whose role for Africa might be comparable to that of the BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China for the world economy. Using data on trade flows since mid-1970s, the results show that the SANE group has experienced few changes in its trade structure, which is still based on low-technology and slow-growth world demand sectors. The degree of persistence in the specialization model is higher in the case of Algeria and Nigeria, where the dependence on products based on natural resources is stronger.

Examining Chinese Tourists’ Nature-based Tourism Participantion Behavior: Incorporating Environmental Concern into a Constraint-Negotiation Modela

Finding the balance between economic development and preservation of the natural environment is a challenging yet important task. This is a particularly pressing issue in the case of China, as it is the largest and fastest-growing market for tourism. The purpose of this research is to examine Chinese tourists’ participation in nature-based, tourism activities by incorporating tourists’ environmental concern, measured by a revised New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale, into a tourism constraint-negotiation model. The responses of 409 Chinese tourists show environmental concern will positively affect tourists’ motivation, which, in turn, will affect their negotiation strategy and ultimately their participation behavior. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed in the context of the tourism literature.

Lobbying by Trade Associations on EU Climate Policy

Climate change has been recognised as one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century. Its impacts, and they way that we choose to deal with them will profoundly affect how business and society operates. This report focuses on European Union (EU) climate policy – the governance structures, rules and regulations that have been put in place at the EU level to attempt to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Specifically, it focuses on how trade associations representing industrial sectors or broader business interest have lobbied on EU climate policy, and the impact that they have had on the policymaking process. The report then goes on to discuss whether the impacts of this lobbying align with the stated policies of the companies that are members of these trade associations.

Small Press Book Fair

This was held on 20 February 2015. It attracted around 25 small presses, and around 100 attendees.

History of Electrex 1950-1993

Electrex developed from a small exhibition at the start of the 1950s into the top electrotechnical exhibition of products and related services in the UK by the 1990s. Its emergence reflected a complex relationship with the key trade association, BEAMA (the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Association). This history places this development in a wider context marked by the disappearance of the British Industries Fair in the 1950s, the entry to Europe and the establishment of the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. In the process it is also a rare case study of the under-explored business histories of exhibitions, as well as casting light on the changing post-war fortunes of the British electrical industries.