EARC Conference 2022 – The revival of the seaside resort? Hosts, guests, communities and opportunities
Venue: Drawing Room
The aspiration to revive seaside resorts comes with many opportunities but also significant challenges. This session will examine these, from new businesses and entrepreneurs, employment opportunities in tourism and hospitality (but also staff shortages), gentrification, community involvement (e.g. in planning) and community reliance (e.g. services the councils do not/cannot provide such as beach clean-ups), guest responsibilities and how to address them.
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Juliane is a Lecturer in Management and Strategy at Kent Business School at the University of Kent. She holds an MA in Tourism, Environment & Development from King’s College London, and a PhD in Management from the University of Kent.
She researches small-scale tourism development in emerging destinations such as Colombia, and has also worked with Visit Kent on a couple of webinars during the Covid pandemic to aid tourism and hospitality SMEs in their recovery strategies.
Prior to working in academia, Juliane worked in tourism marketing for both marketing agencies as well as a small-scale tour operator in her native Germany and other countries. She is a keen traveller and explorer of places near and far, and interested in environmental and societal topics.
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Graham is a Fellow of the Institute of Place Management. He has had a leading role in economic development for almost 25 years.
Much of this work was with coastal communities and local authorities developing, drafting and managing European Structural Fund and UK regeneration programmes.
He has served as Chairman and Director of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, the BCC accredited Chamber for Kent and Medway. Presently he is a member of the SELEP Business Advisory Board.
He was Cabinet Member for Town Centres for Ashford Borough Council for 6 years and drove the place-changing projects for Ashford, changing the perceptions to investors, residents and visitors alike.
His success in revitalising Ashford resulted in him being invited by the High Streets’ Minister to join the Timpson Panel which proposed the Future High Street Fund and the High Street Task Force. These were adopted and are successfully delivering change across England.
He left the Council in May 2019 and is a contracted Expert Member of the High Street Task Force. He is a regular conference speaker, writer and media/broadcaster contributor on town centres.
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Dr Wei Liu is a lecturer in Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship. Before joining the Essex Business School, Wei received her BBA in Business Administration and started her career as a project assistant to carry out a modern distance education programme for rural primary and secondary schools, led by China’s Ministries of Finance, Education and National Development & Reform Commission.
After she came back to academia, she received her MSc in Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, where she continued as a researcher and obtained her PhD in Tourism Management. Wei worked as a research assistant with various organisations on research and consultancy projects about tourism impact evaluation and tourists satisfaction assessment during the final stage of her PhD study.
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A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Paul is currently Head of Parks and Open Spaces for Southend-on-Sea City Council where he works full time, but in his now limited spare time, he writes, lectures, and promotes the value of public parks. He left Watford with 17 Green Flag award winning parks and in Cassiobury Park, one of the best parks in the UK.
He has written a book on bandstands, called Bandstands (amongst 24 other books), which ultimately saw him receive the accolade as one of Britain’s Dullest Men – appearing on the Jeremy Vine show and Have I got News for You.