Michael Morgan

Student Travel Experiences: Memories and Dreams

This article explores the influence of past memorable tourism experiences on future travel aspirations. A sample of British students were asked to name their most memorable holiday place and give a reason for their choices. The results show that places are memorable for a range of external, social and personal reasons but that the most commonly cited memory is of socialising with friends in Mediterranean beach resorts. The influence of destination management in creating these experiences seems limited. Instead the resort serves as a space in which the tourists create their own experiences. When these memories were compared with the students choice of dream destination, there was little evidence of a ‘travel career’ plan, with no significant links between previous memorable experiences and the aspirations for future destinations or types of holiday.

From production line to drama school: higher education for the future of tourism

Tourism degree courses aim to meet the needs of students, employers and government funding bodies, but there is no agreement on how best to do this. Should courses aim to enable graduates to operate within the industry today, or to shape its future development? To what extent should these managerial goals be combined with those of a traditional liberal education? Is the business management focus of most tourism courses the best preparation for the future development of tourism? The relationship between education and industry is charted through past changes to the current debate on future directions. In the future, tourism will be part of the “experience economy” with a new theatrical metaphor replacing the current “military” strategy model. To succeed in this economy, graduates need to draw on qualities of self‐awareness, imagination and creativity. Higher education in tourism may need to rediscover these liberal humanistic values in order to fulfil its managerial objectives of creating successful business managers.

Improving the provision of meals in hospital. The patients’ viewpoint

This study examines the provision of hospital meals from the patients viewpoint, with the aim of improving hospital food service. Patients were approached in early 2008 in a National Health Service hospital in the South of England and invited to comment on the good and bad aspects of eating in hospital. Comments were collected in an abbreviated key word format which incurred the minimum of bias and allowed emergent themes to be analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Seven main themes emerged, of which food and choice were mentioned most frequently, but had a low ratio (1.8 and 1.7, respectively) of approving over disapproving comments. The next most mentioned theme, service staff, showed the highest approving/disapproving ratio (4.8) overall. Less frequent themes were: meals and lifestyle, timing and routine, service quality and food quantity. These data, together with qualitative analysis of the responses showed patients views of hospital food to be positive, on the whole meeting or surpassing their expectations. However, these expectations were low, the experience of eating in hospital contrasted unfavourably with home, and the meals were at best a distraction from the rigours of hospital treatment. Service staff were positively regarded because they offered an important opportunity for normal discourse with a non-medical person. On the basis of the findings, changes are recommended in the management of service staff, menus, food presentation, nutritional intake and patients lifestyle. Of these, the first is likely to have most impact on the experience and viewpoint of hospital patients.